


Crucible (Conquest)

by The Jingo (The_King_in_White)



Series: Ouroboros/Resonance [3]
Category: Highschool DxD (Anime), Naruto
Genre: Anal Sex, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Fantasy, Lesbian Sex, Mythology References, Oral Sex, Politics, Spiritual, Threesome, Vaginal Sex, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-05-27 05:01:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 21
Words: 107,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15017198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_King_in_White/pseuds/The%20Jingo
Summary: Reforged in the ashes of their homeland, the Dreamer and the Builder cast away the vestiges of their old convictions. There is only one route to revolution: "Oderint, dum metuant."





	1. Chapter 1

The clear sky spread out over him, dotted with shapeless white clouds as a gentle breeze ruffled through the grass. Warmth beamed down as the teenager sighed and crossed his hands behind his head. "I wanna squeeze some boobs." Hyoudou Issei muttered in a tone of weary longing.

Motohama frowned at the words of the former sports star, readjusting his thick glasses with a sigh. "Stop saying that. You're making me feel empty." The bespectacled teen admitted, his tone full of the teenage angst caused by lack of female contact.

Sitting up in a quick motion, Issei squinted out over the track field as his dark brown eyes wordlessly followed a gaggle of jogging girls. "Matsuda, Motohama... why did we even enroll in this school?" It had seemed like such a good idea back when the private school first announced they were going co-ed, but now Issei was feeling pretty stupid.

A forlorn look crossed Matsuda's face as he rose alongside his brunette friend and tuned out Motohama's by-rote recitation of their former expectations in joining Kuou Academy. Would it kill Motohama to stop goofing around?

"In short, we'll get a harem?" Issei rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets as he stood. They weren't little kids anymore, so he couldn't keep pretending he'd become massively popular just because he got into high school. "This might only be our first week here, but I really don't think that it's going to be any different than middle school. We'll just be the same losers."

Matsuda sighed, covering his buzz-cut scalp like he could hide from the world. "Stop trying to rain on the parade, Issei. You're going to make me depressed before I even get my first rejection. At least let me have my dreams until then!"

Girlish squeals cut over their conversation as a certain blond student passed by, the air seeming to practically sparkle around him.

Female students crowded around Kiba Yuuto and pestered him with questions and invitations. Suppressing a frisson of annoyance, Yuuto screwed on a twinkling smile and shut them down with a gentle "I'm sorry but I have club activities right now. Thank you for inviting me, though. I'm really sorry."

A trio of seething jealous gazes followed the blond-haired, blue-eyed school idol as he strode off.

"Kiba Yuuto. Class 1-C and an idol to all the girls in the school, and an enemy of all boys – us included". Motohama growled lowly, making a dramatic fist.

Kicking at a pebble, Issei hunched his shoulders tighter and scowled. "Damn it! It's stupid how he's getting all the girls just because he's a little handsome, pretty smart, and good-natured! It's such an unfair world."

"Stop saying things like that, you're making me feel empty."

Matsuda checked his watch before grinning suddenly and scooping up his school bag. "It's almost time! Stay here and mope if you want, I've got places to be."

"Where are you going?" Issei blinked in surprise, Motohama turning to study Matsuda with him.

A significant lecherous smile was Matsuda's reply "Where do you _think_ I'd be going in our _lovely_ , once all girls' school? It's time to find some eye candy fellas."

* * *

"They seriously hit me with their bamboo swords!" Issei winced as he tried to rub away the stinging from the back of his head. Fixing his two so-called best friends with glares, the brunette gave it up for a lost cause and cradled his forehead in his palm. "I wasn't even looking! I wouldn't complain if I had seen some boobs at least!"

"Unlucky for you Issei!" Motohama smirked as he polished his glasses on the hem of his shirt. "You win some, you lose some my friend. That's the way of the world."

"Fuck off."

A faint creak drew Issei's attention and he tuned out his sniggering friends as he craned his head up at the noise.

Crimson streamers.

Blue orbs.

Haunting beauty stared down at him and Issei could do little but gulp and press a hand over his suddenly racing heart. Sweat beaded on his palms, but just before the heat in his ears would have forced Issei to divert his attention to gain some semblance of self control the wonderous apparition vanished.

A pale delicate woman with the reddest hair he'd ever seen and deep blue eyes had leaned into his world for the shortest minute. She'd simply been enjoying the breeze as it stirred through blood-red strands and he'd been instantly smitten. Without a word and barely a glance she'd left him with shaking knees.

Then she was gone, undoubtedly driven away by his wretchedness. What a cruel world.

"So there are people in the old schoolhouse after all." Matsuda's musing drew Issei from his mire of self-pity. "I heard that the new owner was fixing it up, but I thought it was just bullshit."

Breathing out longing and knowledge that some things were never meant to be, Issei fell back into old habits. "That red hair is so nice." The brunette commented with an admiring tone. "I wonder if it's all natural?"

"Rias Gremory." Motohama grinned as he focused through his glasses. "Rumor says her family comes from Northern Europe. But I'd stay away if I were you. Her nephew is in our class, and I think even you heard about that _incident_ with the rugby team. Some things aren't worth dying for."

All three boys shivered, as if Naruto would jump out of the bushes at them screeching madly and swinging a bloody axe.

"You're just a little human encyclopaedia, aren't you?" Issei laughed awkwardly, trying desperately not to think about how Naruto Gremory would break him in half like he'd supposedly done to the rugby team coach. "Except your only talents seem to be memorizing facts about girls you have no chance with."

Issei was in the same class as the redhaired boy, and while the other boy had always been _polite_ there was still a bit a dangerous air to him. Naruto Gremory wasn't someone he wanted to mess with. Better to not even _think_ about Rias Gremory ever again.

* * *

Black and white tangled on a field of contrast, lorded over by a handful of gleaming sinister red chess pieces. "That boy just now..." Rias murmured as she carefully studied the chess board, cradling her chin with dainty fingers.

"Sorry?" Akeno queried quizzically, spawled on the opposite couch as she thumbed through an issue of some American music industry magazine that Rias didn't care to study too closely. Muscle cars and screamo were a little too vulgar for her tastes.

"I mean the one in the middle." Rias clarified, considering all possibilities stretching over the constructed chess scenario before her absently. "There was something off about it, don't you think?"

Rolling her eyes to the ceiling in thought, Akeno bit her lip before nodding decisively. "He's in class 1-B. If I recall correctly, his name is Hyoudou. What about him?" Violet orbs traced over Rias' pensive form as the servant redirected her sole attention to the Gremory noblewoman.

"Nevermind." Rias decided as she leaned ahead and pushed her white pawn into position. "I was probably just seeing things." Drawing back, she stood with an air of grace and pronounced her victory. "Checkmate."

"Oh my." Akeno muttered as she leaned forward, tracing her gaze over the board. "I expected that to take you at least twice as long. Now I'm a bit depressed."

"It was an easy problem." The stripping Rias asserted confidently as she carefully slipped out of her school uniform, throwing it in the hamper and stepping into the clubhouse bathroom for a quick shower. "And I don't believe you."

"I did raise the difficulty quite a bit, though." Akeno defended, moving her eyes from the abandoned chess board to the open bathroom doorway.

"Did you? I hope the next one will be harder." Rias called out as she stepped under the steaming spray.

Even as she lathered up her milky flesh, the redhead found her thoughts returning again and again to that Hyoudou boy. He was nothing special to look at, and from the little she'd seen he was likely as dumb as a post, but there was still something about him that spoke of barely contained power.

"Perhaps Hyoudou possesses a Sacred Gear?" Rias theorized, turning to let the hot shower wash the suds from the back of her shoulders. "Or maybe some latent nonhuman ancestry?"

Akeno took a moment to respond, before shouting back in a distracted tone. "It would best a good idea to keep an eye on him I suppose. And just so you know, Sasuke just walked in."

"And you're just telling me this _now_?" Rias screeched, embarrassed heat flooding her face. "Close the door you degenerate! And give me some warning next time!"

* * *

Naruto resisted the urge to slam his face into his desk, squinting over at the clock that hung above the blackboard. He'd been counting down the minutes all day, waiting for the moment the last bell rang so that he could get the hell out of this torture chamber.

Half an hour to go.

Tearing the corner off his notebook, Naruto balled the little piece of paper up. After cautiously glancing up at the teacher who was seated at her desk, the redhead cranked his arm back and threw the little missile as hard as he could.

Sasuke twitched when the paper ball hit him in the back of the head, the Uchiha sending a toxic glare over his shoulder at the cheeky Gremory heir before deliberately turning back to his school work.

Grinning at the dismissal, Naruto just crafted half a dozen more projectiles, aiming for the back of Sasuke's neck every time. He wondered if the bell would ring first or if Sasuke would finally break down in a roaring fit in the middle of class.

It was probably a bit sadistic of him, but Naruto _really_ wanted to see the second. Japanese high school might be more highbrow than his time in the ninja academy had been, but overall it was just as bland and dull. A little drama or a few pranks would spice things up before he died of boredom.

And considering he was only at the end of his first week and still had months to go, Naruto _knew_ he'd rather pull out his own eyeballs than sit through another few years of _this_. Fucking Sona and her fucking academic obsessions, twisting his arms and making him go through a full high school career with her.

Naruto pouted when Sasuke absolutely refused to respond to his teasing, folding his arms and glaring at the clock with all the aggression of a pent-up teenager. Twenty minutes to go and he was just about ready to strip naked and re-enact Lord of the Flies in a tenth-grade classroom.

"Hey, give this a shot." The boy seated between Naruto and the window whispered, and he briefly looked over.

Hyoudou handed Naruto a thick white brand-new eraser that was still in its little cardboard jacket, and the devil in disguise leered back ferally.

"You're not so bad." He complimented, scanning over the crowd of students and looking for a decent target.

So what if it was childish? More than one of the kids in the room were adult non-humans in disguise and probably just as bored out of their skulls as he was.

Picking out the glossy dark mane of that one fallen angel girl who'd introduced herself to the class as 'Yuuma Amano', Naruto cocked his arm back and let the eraser fly. It conked right into the back of her head, bouncing off and landing on the floor with a rubbery plop.

The look that Raynare sent back promised unmentionable horrors.

Smirking back cheekily, Naruto waggled his eyebrows.

When she slowly turned back around without rising to the bait, Naruto slumped in disappointment. Was it too much to ask for at least someone to do something entertaining? There might be only fifteen minutes left but he was _so bored_.

A faint trickle of heat bloomed in his groin, and Naruto hunched over with a frown. This was no time for a boner, and even if it was there was no reason in particular for his stiffy. It wasn't like he'd started having pervy thought.

Damn teenage hormones. This second puberty was killing him.

Reaching down carefully in an attempt to tuck himself carefully under the waistband to hide, Naruto recoiled with a shout when his fingers encountered not hard flesh but a searing holy flame. His crotch was _literally on fire_.

"Gremory-san!" The teacher crowed like a harpy as Naruto jumped to his feet and began to frantically pat at the flames. Damn it, _damn it_ , why wouldn't they just go out? There were certain things that were never supposed to come near a man's junk, and fire was pretty fucking high the list!

By the time the redhead finally managed to smother out the yellow tinged blaze, it had burned a hole right through the front of his slacks to reveal his toad patterned boxers. "Umm?" he croaked awkwardly, covering the hole with both hands to hide it from the wide-eyed stares of his classmates. "It wasn't me?"

Shinamura-sensei descended with all the fury of a middle-aged spinster, clucking with rage and flapping her hands. "In all my years I've never seen such _hooliganism_. Playing with _fire_ in my classroom? Get out, get out! I will be having words with the administrator young man!"

Then the grey-haired matron chased him out in the hall, slamming the door behind the bewildered Gremory heir with a slam. The very last thing he saw before the door was closed was the victorious leer on Raynare's face.

Oh it was so on.

* * *

Sasuke stepped into the newly formed Occult Research Club's private dorm with a heavy sense of relief. Finally, after enduring the hungry gazes of the female population of Kuoh Academy for a week, he'd get to have a few days of not being raped with their eyes.

"Where's the rest of them?" he asked Koneko, who was sprawled out on the couch mashing her thumbs against the buttons of her Gameboy.

"Who knows?" The nekomata mused, fully absorbed in leveling up her magikarp. 'NARUTO grew to level 12' was proudly displayed on her screen in blinking characters.

Koneko was in class 1-A with Valerie and Ravel, so she hadn't seen any other member of their scattered group since lunch break. "Yuuto said he would take in our applications to join the Cooking Club."

Shucking off his black blazer and throwing it over the back of the empty couch, Sasuke couldn't help but grimace at the reminder of the blond Knight. As bad as he'd had it with all the airheaded girls leering at him, at least they kept their distance. Yuuto was so polite and friendly that he was getting ambushed everyday.

Truly, fangirls were the bane of man.

"You should probably save." Sasuke advised, rolling up his sleeves and switching gears as he crossed the Victorian themed clubroom.

There was a pair of crisp new folders perched on the corner of Rias' desk, and Sasuke knew without even opening it that them that they were full of contract seals. "Unless you want to roam around town trying to work and play a retro Pokémon game at the same time."

Koneko huffed explosively, mashing a few buttons as she saved her progress before shoving the handheld console in her pocket. "Let's get this over with." She muttered, rolling to her feet and stretching in a way that had the hem of her skirt rising dangerously high.

Leaving the folder that Rias had elegantly scrawled Naruto's name across, Sasuke snatched up the other and folded it under his arm.

Amber eyes glinted mischievously "The faster we do this, the faster we can do some grinding."

"I am _not_ playing EverQuest again." Sasuke sighed with exasperation, pulling a sheaf of contract seals out and shoving them into Koneko's hands. "First of all, I have better things to do. Secondly, Warcraft is objectively superior."

"You're a filthy heathen with no appreciation for the classics."

Sasuke let that one slide as they left the club house, jogging across the academy grounds in a hurry before splitting at the front gates and heading in opposite directions.

Honestly, he wasn't thrilled about spending the first half of his Friday evening playing errand boy. But someone had to do it, and Sasuke was rational enough to admit that finding places to tape up what basically amounted to Rias' advertisements was probably the job of a servant.

Zeoticus had been giving him odd looks lately, so maybe it was paranoia, but maybe Sasuke really was on thin ice. Either way, he had a role to play, and he fully intended to succeed.

Grateful that at least it wasn't raining out, Sasuke kept up a light sprint over the asphalt as he moved into the working-class end of town. If there was anyone that would be willing to take a gamble on the supernatural, it would be the destitute and desperate.

Out of a hundred contract seals, maybe one would actually be used by some human down on his luck. And of the ones actually used, maybe a tenth of those would actually follow through on the contract after summoning.

Unlike Hokkaido, there had never been a strong devil presence in Kuoh until the Gremory clan bought the academy. Cleria Belial had once formally reigned in the town, but even then she'd never really done much to fortify her control.

Building up their reputations through contracts would involve a lot of work for very little reward, but every revolution had to start somewhere.

Sasuke just wished that start didn't have to be in a shit-covered bathroom in some run down konbini.

* * *

"I'm home!" Ravel yawned, bracing herself against the wall as she kicked off her brown loafers. She could hear the quiet chatter of half a dozen voices and hoped she hadn't missed dinner by staying at the library for a few hours.

It wasn't that the blonde couldn't afford to order some delivery food if she had, but no one wanted to pass up on Yuuto's cooking. The blond Knight had become a veritable gourmet wizard over the past few years, meticulously experimenting with every dish until he truly mastered them.

Padding over the dark hardwood floor in sock feet, Ravel dropped her bookbag outside the door to the kitchen. "Oh good, you're still cooking." She noted as she entered the room, startling Valerie and prompting an easy wave from Yuuto. "Lasagna is it?"

"Four cheese with ricotta." The grey-eyed young man clarified with an easy smile, tapping his fingers on the counter as he watched the clock. "It'll only be another minute or so. Everyone else is already seated at the table."

Recognizing a polite suggestion when she heard it, Ravel hummed and moved towards the dining room, giving her fellow Bishop a tight nod as she passed. Valerie returned it easily enough, and a little knot of tension she hadn't noticed before loosened between her shoulder blades.

In all likelihood she and the other blonde would never be friends, but as the months wore on the situation had become less antagonistic. They played politely enough in front of everyone else, and in private they simply ignored each other. It was quite a difference from the raging hostility that had once boiled in their veins whenever they were in the same room.

"Oh come on, it was just a bit of fun."

"Even so, you shouldn't be bullying other students in general. Doing it to an agent of the Grigori is just asking for trouble." Rias chastised her sullen nephew, shifting her gaze briefly as Ravel entered the room. "Nothing happened this time, but you still provoked her into spellcasting. That can only happen so often before you get caught by the humans, and then where would we be?"

"Fine, fine, _mom_." Naruto huffed, turning away from his aunt and winking at Ravel once Rias could no longer see his face. "I'll behave." _Not_ he mouthed to Ravel, making her snort with amusement.

Taking the empty seat next to her fiancé, Ravel peered across the table at where Sasuke was murmuring to Koneko and pouring over a map of the city, crossing off neighborhoods with a black marker.

"Making good progress?"

"Some." Sasuke grunted, not bothering to look up.

A little irritated at being ignored, Ravel let the conversation drop. It wasn't like Sasuke scattering contract seals for Rias had anything to do with her in the end anyway. Contract seals could only be bound to a single devil and then networked to their peerage, so Ravel wouldn't be getting a summon until Naruto started handing his out.

Speaking of which – "Did you ever get around to handing out any of your contract seals?" The blonde prodded, turning to Naruto with a questioning gaze.

Naruto just grimaced. "Nah, I'm not like the stiff bastard over there. We've got three years here, so I figured there was no rush to get things all done right off. And besides, there are a few things gramps and I have to straighten out with the Belial clan. I've got no time to be running errands for random people right now."

Which was fair, Ravel allowed, and was probably the reason Rias wasn't hounding Naruto to start fishing for contracts. It was important to settle things with the Belial clan, even if it came at the cost of digging their claws into Kuoh. After Cleria's death and the following scandal the Belials had pulled back from Kuoh, but they'd always maintained at least a vague claim to the territory.

The Gremory were by contrast newcomers, recklessly sticking their nose into the Japanese town. It was a clan dispute that wouldn't escalate to war, but there were a few formalities to observe and apologies to be made. Zeoticus had taken advantage of Lord Belial's relative poverty and weakness to get his foot in the door, now they had to smooth down ruffled feathers before a real grudge formed.

Wishing for once that her fiancé was further down in the line of succession and less caught up in Zeoticus' new power games, Ravel took a pensive sip of water. "I suppose Valerie and I could split them and spread them around for you." She volunteered reluctantly.

Even if she'd rather not work with her rival, Ravel could put aside that friction for the sake of increasing the grip Naruto's clan had on Kuoh. It would be better to spread their net as quickly as possible, before another clan – or worse, one of the youkai factions – tried to cut in.

Grinning sheepishly, Naruto awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Well I won't say _no_ , you'd be doing me a favour, but I figured I'd just try to bribe Rias into doing it. So don't feel like you _have_ to jump up or anything."

Ravel cocked an eyebrow. "Oho? Too good for a bit of honest work are you now, young master? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. There are lots of people out there who get quite spoiled by a little bit of luxury."

"I don't want to hear that from you, little miss grilled chicken."

Smiling nastily, Ravel snaked her hand under the tablecloth and pinched the meaty part of Naruto's thigh with all the force her manicured nails could sustain. The redhead gave a low but satisfying hiss of pain. "I meant _hellbird_. The great and glorious phoenix, who of course doesn't even compare to your magnificence."

Ravel let the sarcasm slide, releasing her grip. But before she could pull back Naruto startled her by grabbing her hand and threading their fingers together.

The simple affectionate gesture made her cheeks warm, even though no one would think anything of it. Why would they? There'd been enough outright kisses to make handholding pretty damn tame.

In the end, the Bishop supposed she could just chalk it all up to the pleasure of having her affection vindicated. Naruto was still so conscious of boundaries, never doing anything too risqué or pushing the boundaries too far, but at least he desired her now and admitted it. Which was what she'd originally wanted in the first place.

"I hope that no one has spoiled their appetite with sweet snacks." Yuuto declared, sweeping in from the kitchen with a steaming hot dish of lasagna in his mitt-clad hands. The blond gave Koneko a significant glare as she deliberately took another bite of her half-eaten biscuit. "Because I expect you to clear your plate either way, so don't blame me if you eat so much you make yourself sick."

"It's like he thinks he's Gordon Ramsey." Naruto muttered under his breath.

* * *

Gasper knuckled at the corner of his eye, trying to get rid of the dry itchy feeling that came with going two days without any sleep. Once he was done editing Koneko's latest 'Let's Play', he'd upload the video to Youtube and bundle up somewhere for a few hours.

A sharp knock sounded at the door followed by the creaking of steps as someone came down into the dhampir's basement lair, flicking on the lights and chasing away the darkness. Against his will Gasper found himself squinting at the brightness. "Hello?"

"It's just me, Gasper." Yuuto greeted, carrying a plate of still warm dinner over for the younger boy. The blond had sprinkled a few drops of his own blood over the top as seasoning – not enough to sate a true bloodthirst but enough to please Gasper's vampirism. "I brought you some lasagna."

Mumbling out a quiet thanks, Gasper turned back to the screen and began rooting around under the desk. Eventually he found a half-empty bottle of Pocari Sweat. Maybe it had gone warm but it would still wash down his dinner.

Even if Yuuto wanted to hover around clucking with disapproval at his nutrition choices.

"I'm almost done with Koneko's vid, did you want me to look over yours too?" Gasper offered, cutting off a forkful of pasta and cheese and plopping it in his mouth. The rich taste of Yuuto's cooking was so good the little Bishop moaned internally.

Inspecting the open video program on the screen, Yuuto hummed in thought. "Sure, if you don't mind that is?" His own cooking channel was only starting to get off the ground, and his videos were always better edited when Gasper looked over them for him. But the Knight didn't want to take advantage of the dhampir.

Gasper swallowed, taking a slurp of his sweet flavoured ion drink before shrugging one bony shoulder. "I don't mind at all." He chirped brightly, cutting up the rest of his lasagna into little square pieces. "I already finished all my homeschool assignments for the month so I have some free time."

"Thanks." Wringing his hands a little guiltily, Yuuto stared at the back of Gasper's head before an idea came to him. "I was thinking of making something new tomorrow for dinner. Do you like those little meat rolls?"

Curious scarlet eyes swiveled back to stare at Yuuto. "Are you talking about mititei? They're okay. Why?"

A few years ago he'd have been to shy to ask his friends what they were after so boldly, but Rias' peerage had become his family after rescuing him from his early imprisonment. Gasper still didn't trust strangers, but he'd become attached to all of the young devils - even Ravel despite her obvious dislike for Valerie.

Yuuto smiled brightly and waved off Gasper's befuddlement. "No reason in particular. I was just thinking of branching out. Everyone must be getting tired of constantly eating English and Italian food, and studying French cuisine is such a cliché, don't you think?"

"I guess?"

The conversation trailed off with Gasper turning his focus back to his plate, scarfing down the rest of his meal before it got cold and resisting the urge to lick the plate once it was gone. So what if only animals did things like that? Yuuto was really selling himself short. His friend might not cook much in ethnic variety, but what he did cook was _always_ amazing.

Passing the empty plate back to Yuuto, Gasper watched the other blond climb the stairs. Yuuto left the lights on when he left, but everyone always did that. Even Valerie. It was starting to annoy him. Sure, he might not want to go outside but that didn't make him a depressed shut-in! Darkness was just easier on his eyes, that's all.

Gasper hopped to his feet, padding across the luxurious basement apartment Rias had built for him before peering up the stairwell. Once he was sure that Yuuto was actually gone rather than just hovering around like a mother hen, Gasper snorted and slapped the light switch to the off position.

The Bishop made it halfway back to his computer when a sudden spark of awareness bloomed in the back of his head, making Gasper stumble before he found his balance. "Huh." He wondered. "So that's what it feels like?" Someone had activated one of the contract seals, conveying through blood and across the strings of magic a person and desire that Gasper was the best to handle.

"That was quick." Sasuke and Koneko had only started spreading the contract seals a few hours ago. Someone must have been pretty desperate, or at least pretty _weird_ to use one so quickly.

Slapping his cheeks to wake himself up, Gasper crawled back into his chair and brought up one of his dummy email accounts. He typed out a short careful letter to one Sugiyama Yoko, trying to make it as vague as possible but keeping a few details that a legitimate summoner would recognize. One could never be too careful with all the human governments spying on everything.

Gasper clicked send, firing off the electronic text through the strings of the web. All he had to do now was wait. Any minute now the woman that had called on him would respond, and he had to be ready. Gasper was just going to rest his eyes for a quick minute.

Before he knew it, the young devil was snoozing face first on the keyboard, a long string of drool dribbling from his snoring mouth. Ten minutes later his speakers beeped with the notification of new mail, but Gasper slept on.


	2. Chapter 2

Raynare leaned her head back, resting her crown against the rough bricks and mortar that had gone into building Kuoh Academy. "Just leave me _alone_." The fallen angel sighed, idly wondering if she could bash her brains across those bricks just to escape the sheer mediocrity that was her life at the moment.

"Oh, come on! You know you love me."

Violet orbs glimmered like a purple flame as Raynare turned and settled the most poisonous gaze she could muster on the Gremory brat. "No. I really, _really_ don't." She'd sooner cut out her own eyes than admit to any level of affection for him.

The redhead's antics might be slightly more interesting than suffering through yet another year pretending to be a human, but if _she_ was the one playing target for his absurd antics Raynare would prefer it Naruto went and _died_ someplace else.

And a _painful_ death at that, but Raynare would take what she could get. As long as the stupid little idiot wasn't bothering her anymore she'd be satisfied. Boredom was better than mockery at the hands of an idiot child.

Naruto pouted, poking out his pink lips and shoving his hands in the pockets of his ebony slacks. "When you say things like that you hurt my feelings you know? I thought we were closer than that, Amano-chan." The grin he put on after that would probably melt some innocent little virgin's heart.

In Raynare's case that smile just pissed her off. She'd lived for _centuries_ , scheming and fighting and surviving, only to have to spend her days babysitting a bunch of fucking children while she watched over the Hyoudou boy.

If the mission hadn't come directly from Azazel she would have refused. But since it _did_ come from him, the only thing Raynare could do was grit her teeth and bear it.

For Azazel's sake, if nothing else.

"So how long do you think we're gonna be out here?"

"Don't ask me." Raynare shot back coldly, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at the wall.

For some reason or another, Naruto Gremory had targeted her for his pathetic harassment. And while she wasn't one to break down in tears about juvenile bullying, her return fire had landed her in time out with the redhaired buffoon.

Considering her mission was to keep her head down and watch both Hyoudou Issei and the generation of devils infesting Kuoh Academy, Raynare couldn't help but sweat. She wouldn't be expelled _this_ time, but if Naruto kept needling her she wouldn't be able to keep quiet.

And if she struck back it might eventually lead to expulsion. And if she was expelled Raynare would have to go before Lord Azazel and report that she couldn't even handle a simple mission like watching a handful of _fucking children_.

The very idea of admitting to that kind of failure made her want to slit her own throat.

Every bone in her body revolted at the thought of letting some devil treat her like his personal stooge, but Raynare decided if that was the only choice left to her. _Maybe_ all she could do was swallow her pride down and bury the sickly-sweet taste of her own resentment.

If that was what Lord Azazel needed from her, the only thing Raynare could do was comply. He'd saved her from death and desolation, giving her a home and new purpose. A bit of discomfort was nothing compared to _that_.

Stretching her lips into a teasing smirk, the dark-haired fallen angel turned and cocked an eyebrow at the little mongrel who'd gotten her in trouble. "And if you keep bothering your classmates you might find those rumors about you breaking the Rugby team in half sticking around."

"That was _you_? Bitch! I was wondering where the fuck that shit was coming from!"

"Hey now, I was just saying your classmates might. I never claimed responsibility for such a thing."

* * *

Slowly combing his fingers through silky crimson strands, Sasuke let Rias rest her head in his lap without protest. "I expected you to be working." He commented instead, staring idly at the tapestry that crowned the wall opposite the windows.

It depicted a single green lion swallowing the sun, swelling with sacred and profane divinity. There was some kind of comparison to Sasuke's own existence there, with the souls of his kin swimming beneath the surface of his skin, and he found his focus skittering away.

Rias shifted from her side to her back, peeking up at him through a tiny crack in her eyelids. They were alone in the clubroom, and for the first time in weeks Rias wasn't bustling around frantically trying to tie up loose ends or get ahead of the curve. "There's little to be done."

Sasuke hummed his agreement, shifting his hand to cover her eyes until he felt the flutter of Rias' eyelashes against his palm. It was a wordless request for her to simply _rest_ , and perhaps catch up on a few hours of sleep if she could.

A request Rias accepted, and why not? Her father was the owner of the school, and she was miles ahead of the curriculum. Even if she skipped her classes, Rias wouldn't be punished. Especially considering she was a model student rather than the up-and-coming delinquent Naruto seemed determined to become.

Running herself into the ground when she didn't have to would only be to Rias' detriment.

The wind blew in gently from the open window, ruffling Sasuke's hair as Rias settled into a light doze, folding her hands over her stomach and letting the stiff muscles in her neck relax. Oblivion bore her awareness away, drowning it in the dark sweet ocean of unconsciousness.

She was cute, Sasuke reflected wryly as the Ruin Princess' face went slack and Rias fell into a cycle of silent breathing broken by quiet little snuffles. He'd never been one to appreciate the cuddly and defenseless, but he couldn't help the easy warmth that began to fill his chest at the sight of her.

Rias and the rest of their little patchwork family had worked their way into his heart, and Sasuke wondered if this was the kind of sentimentality that bonds created. It made him feel weak, like anyone could come along with a sharp blade and cut out the vulnerable underbelly of him.

But there was no denying that it also made him feel content.

Burying his fingers back into the softness that was Rias' mane, Sasuke let a handful of hours slip by, remorselessly missing his afternoon classes in order to let her sleep on. It was only when he faintly heard the bell signaling the last period of the day that the Uchiha reluctantly shook Rias awake. "It's time."

Rias jerked, her sea-green eyes flying open and flickering over to the grandfather clock that lurked in the corner. "I'll have to ask Akeno for today's homework." She grumbled, shifting about on the coach so she was sitting upright beside her Pawn. "And convince her not to tell Naruto about it."

"You'd never hear the end of it." Sasuke agreed easily, lifting his arm so Rias could cuddle into his side with an amused huff. "Perhaps I should spill the beans myself, just so I have company in my misery."

She half-heartedly punched him in the ribs for that, but otherwise not doing anything to disturb that careful press of warm flesh on warm flesh that connected them. "Trogdolyte. You'd do that to your own King?"

"If I have to suffer Naruto's whining about not helping him skip class, you should too, don't you think?"

Giving Sasuke a sad puppy look, Rias let her lower lip wobble and her eye fill with unshed tears.

Rather than making Sasuke cave however, it just made him laugh, which in turn made Rias break out in giggles. "Oh fine, do whatever you want. I just hope when I decide to join my nephew in delinquency you take responsibility for it."

"I doubt you'd ever come close to Naruto's level. He's got years of practice." Sasuke pointed out blandly.

As bad as Naruto was shaping up to be by the standards of the twenty-first century Japanese education system, what the redhead was doing had _nothing_ on some of the hijinks he'd gotten up to during their academy days. Throwing a few water balloons was nowhere near the level of painting over the Hokage Monument.

Rias blinked, lowering her gaze as she reached out to trail a slow finger in circles on the top of Sasuke's knee. "Was he really that bad… back there?" she asked delicately, _euphemistically_ ; because even if Konoha wasn't a formally contraband topic everyone in their little family was reluctant to bring it up. Naruto and Sasuke had never seemed eager to speak of it themselves, especially after the fiasco last year, and generally Rias let sleeping dogs lie.

She'd rather have her curiosity go unsated than ask Sasuke to reflect on painful memories just so she could get the full story. Rias knew the most important details of his life, along with a few tidbits about Sasuke's early childhood, and that was enough. But if Sasuke wanted to talk about it for his own reasons, she'd be glad enough to listen.

Rias wanted to know everything about him.

Silent stillness filled the air for a few tense heartbeats, and then the corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched upward in nostalgic amusement. "Yeah, he was a little shit. I'm not pleased that he keeps throwing spitballs at me, but at least he's not ambushing me and tying me up in a closet somewhere, which he _has_ done by the way. It could be worse."

"But _why_?" Rias blinked in befuddlement. "Was that just typical for ninja students to do to each other, or was Naruto trying to go above and beyond just to bully you?"

The mere thought of _Naruto_ trying to bully _him_ made Sasuke throw back his head in a sharp bellow of mirth. "No, no." he shook his head as he forced back his chuckles, cautiously wiping away a little tear of laughter that had caught in his eyelashes.

"Naruto wasn't a bully. He was the _bullied,_ I guess. But that particular incident was because he wanted to transform into me and try to interrogate the girl he had a crush on and needed me out of the way."

"And how did that go for him?"

"He drank some expired milk that morning and ended up shackled to the toilet shitting his guts out before he could get anywhere."

Rias snorted, easily able to picture her energetic and occasionally thoughtless nephew getting tripped up by his lack of attention to detail. "That sounds like him."

Pushing away the memory of the first time he'd broken Sakura's heart by rejecting her for looking down on a lonely orphan, Sasuke focused on the _now_ and smiled instead. "He was always swinging between totally incompetent and absurdly competent back then. One week he'd get away with painting a national monument in plain sight, and in the next he'd get caught up in his own traps and covered in rotten eggs. He was practically an idiot savant I guess."

Thinking about just how far Naruto had come, from being known as a lucky dunce in his first childhood to a born genius in the second, Rias realized that she still didn't really _know_ him. She'd forgiven him for usurping her position as the heir to the clan, but that wasn't the same as actually bonding with him. "What else was different then?" she dared.

Sasuke shifted his coal dark stare down to meet Rias' tentative teal, reflecting. He pushed back through the memories and heartache to a time when he and Naruto had still been lost children looking for something like home, and then the Uchiha began to speak.

Words fell freely from his mouth as Sasuke explained the academy curriculum, how they'd trained until their fingers bled and calluses built up and the pride they took in that. He described the classmates he could remember, from the lazy Shikamaru to the loud Ino and the quiet Hinata. He skipped only the complete isolation and subtle sabotage Naruto suffered, reasoning that it was his brother through time's tale to spin.

Sasuke spoke and spoke, more in one sitting than he did in some days, until at the last the final bell of the day rang that signaled the end of classes. "I should probably stop there." He cut off an anecdote about Iruka's and Naruto's antics with a frown, glancing over at the clock.

The disappointment in Rias' face was palpable, but she didn't protest, only giving his hand a reassuring squeeze before rising to her feet. "If you head off to the kendo club you might beat Yuuto there." She glossed over their talk effortlessly, letting sleeping dogs lie in a way that left Sasuke feeling thankful.

Sometimes it was best to pick at the scabs of the past, to make sure that no poison had seeped in unnoticed. But it still hurt. And that fact that Rias knew when to push and when not to was proof she understood the heart of him.

"Alright, I'm heading out then." Sasuke murmured, standing with the lithe grace of a panther. "If I see Akeno I'll let her know that you're looking for her." Then without any hesitation Sasuke cupped her chin, tilted Rias' head back, and gave her a soft kiss.

A soft squeak of surprise rose in the back of Rias' throat, but the shock passed and she responded eagerly.

They were so cautious of the rumors that might start that Rias found herself half-starved and wanting at the best of times. She took everything she could get every time she could, kissing back so fiercely that Sasuke couldn't help but rise to the challenge.

Sasuke settled one hand on Rias' upper back and the other on the curve of her hip, drawing her close and hating the thin cloth that prevented him from being able to feel the smoothness of her skin. His heart picked up speed, racing with electric desire as he kissed her deeper.

Prodding at the seam of her lips until Rias yielded and opened her mouth, Sasuke aggressively tangled their tongues together in the way that always made her mewl.

"I think I should be surprised but I'm just _not_. Come on Sasuke, what happened to bros before hoes?"

And just like that the moment was broken, Rias stumbling away with a burning pink face.

Sasuke decided then and there that he didn't need to worry about anymore spitballs in class, because by the end of the week he'll have killed Naruto.

* * *

Issei winced as his mom's voice rose to a tinny shriek, distorted by the speaker of his cheap cellphone. "Okay, okay. I'll join something." He mumbled, tiredly rubbing at his forehead as his mother continued to rag on him. "Yes, I'll do it by the end of the day. Yeah okay. Bye, Kaa-san."

Flipping the slightly battered Panasonic mobile shut to end the call, Issei had the brief fantasy of snapping the little thing in half. He didn't have money to throw away getting a brand-new model because he gave into his temper tantrum, but at least he'd be working some of his frustration out.

Eventually the teen just exhaled gustily, shoving his phone in his pocket so he could rest his elbows on the green-painted walkway railing. "I'm not gonna turn into a hikkikomori." He complained moodily, staring across the lush academy lawn at a couple of cute girls.

When the sight of pretty young women in school uniforms didn't make him feel any better, Issei knew he was in trouble.

Kicking at the pavement with the toe of his shoe, Issei turned away from the girls and began to slowly amble his way back into the academy. Matsuda and Motohama were probably off somewhere trading the latest DVD of some ecchi anime, but he couldn't bring himself to care they were leaving him out.

Damn it, why was this happening to him? Issei wasn't some muscle headed jock, so why was his mom riding his ass so much to join one of the sports teams?

It was probably some stupid fad she'd heard about from one of her housewife buddies, Issei reflected bitterly. In fact, it was probably that dumb old broad Sasaki-san filling his mom's head with nonsense about how sports would save her son from a lifetime of virginity.

Honestly, just because he liked anime and was a bit socially awkward didn't mean that Issei was doomed to become a NEET or a parasite single or something. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but he wasn't that much of a failure. And if he _was_ , Issei really doubted joining the baseball team would make a 'real man' out of him.

Muttering a quiet "Excuse me." as he slid around a short white-haired girl with amber eyes, Issei climbed the stairwell to the second floor. If he had to join one of the sports clubs, he'd probably be better off talking to his homeroom teacher to find out which ones were open to first years.

It was such a damn pain, but it was better to get it out of the way sooner. Just pick one that sounded half decent and he could stick with it for the rest of his high school life.

And if he got it done early, maybe Issei would have some time on the way home to stop in a few of the shops and see if there were any new manga series on the shelf that would catch his eye.

Energized by the thought of finding a brand new and engaging harem manga to follow, Issei gave a small smile and put a little spring in his step. "Maybe it won't be so bad." He hoped. After all, the girls did like a guy who could get a little rough on the playing field rather than a nerd. If he and the team won a championship somewhere, he might even be able to get his first girlfriend.

Issei grinned at the thought, turning the last corner and quickening his pace until he stood outside his homeroom. "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, I guess?" Then he turned the doorknob and stepped inside, only to stop dead at the reeking smell of wet chemicals.

Covering his noise with his sleeve, Issei looked from one wet bright orange wall to the other. "What the actual fuck?"

* * *

By the time Wednesday rolled around Gasper was just about ready to call it quits. "Now?" he asked in a tired voice, red eyes glazed as he watched Akeno listen to his Auto-Tune'd remix.

The young woman just held up one hand to quiet him, closing her eyes and listening with one foot drumming out the beat. "It's better." Akeno answered, sounding rather frustrated herself. "But it's still not quite there. It's – I don't know – the bass is too loud? You need to make the vocals a little clearer. Right now they're just being drowned out"

Accepting the ear buds back with a little frown, the Bishop threw them back on his desk before turning back to the computer screen and scanning over the interface of his vocal processing program. "I'll try."

As the days passed and he struggled to create an interesting and unique track, Gasper started wishing he'd never accepted Sugiyama's stupid contract.

But hers was still the only contract anyone in their peerage had gotten so far.

"It'll be another half hour or so before I'm done with the tweaking, so I'll send you a text when I'm done. Thanks again for the help." Gasper sighed, grabbing the mouse and trying to get back in the groove. It wasn't that he _wanted_ Akeno gone, but she didn't have to waste her time hanging out with someone like him. She probably had a few glamorous girlfriends from school to chat with instead.

Akeno gave a careless shrug, throwing herself into the nearest brown leather couch before lazily resting her right heel on her left knee. "If it's all the same to you I'll just stick around. I don't really have anything better to do. So what's up?"

Keeping his focus on the computer screen so that she wouldn't see the pleased blush on his cheeks, Gasper tapped a happy little staccato on his desk before coughing awkwardly into his fist. "Not a whole lot. Just trying to juggle working on the contract with learning Javascript. What about you?"

"Mostly brownnosing." Akeno replied in a disgusted tone, reaching back and untying her bright yellow ribbon so her hair could hang down loosely. "Rias and Sona want everyone at school to have a good opinion of us, so we've been pretending to be nice little first years like our lives depend on it. Share homework notes, stick around and volunteer to clean up, listen to the gossip, that kind of thing."

Hesitantly, Gasper threw a pained smile over his shoulder at her. "That sounds fun." The delicate sarcasm almost flew over Akeno's head, but she just barely caught it, blinking in amusement.

"Sure. It's oodles and oodles of fun. In fact, I've never been happier in my life. For _years_ I've longed to be able to kiss human ass, knowing that for a few years I might be able to be popular with teenaged girls."

Gasper began to choke with hilarity, coughing as he accidentally swallowed a thick ball of spit. "Oh, oh! Let me guess, now that you're going to a human school you finally have a chance to reach all your dreams."

"Exactly!" Akeno exclaimed, pressing a hand over her heart. "Oh Gasper, there's no one in this world that understands me the way you do! Let us run into the sunset together, holding hands and knowing that at the end of the road lies two-point-five children and a yard with a white picket fence."

"Don't forget the dog named Spot."

"Oh I could never forget _Spot_. I'm just appalled you forgot Lassie."

Pounding the desk with a fist as his face turned cherry red from lack of air, Gasper couldn't stop laughing until darkness started pushing in from the corners of his vision and he felt like he was going to pass out. " _Lassie_! Enough, enough." He wheezed, clicking the computer mouse in an effort to try to get back on task.

Akeno grinned wolfishly but let the dhampir return to work without any more fuss.

It was easy to play a few rounds of Tetris on her mobile while Gasper worked away, but after a quarter of an hour the violet-eyed young woman found a question needling her relentlessly. "Hey, if you're putting so much effort into making this remix why don't you just cut out the middle man? If it's any good you could make ten times more selling it out as yourself, not to mention the fame you'd get."

"That's what I thought." Gasper moaned, roughly combing his bangs out of his eyes as he squinted at a particularly complex part of the track. "But Rias said it's better to own an idol than it is to be one. If Sugiyama ever makes it big we can use her fame to push whatever agenda we want. But if I was the one that made it big I'd have to fake a death after a few years once people saw I wasn't aging."

Shaking her head, Akeno gave it up. The idea of some human taking credit for Gasper's work was a bit frustrating, but she could see her King's point. "Not to mention there's the whole problem with having everyone think your natural face belongs to some dead internet celebrity."

"Exactly. It's just a hundred times _simpler_ to puppet some desperate human looking for a devil to make them famous. The clan doesn't need the money, and we get someone that will dance on the strings for thirty or forty years if we want to push some social agenda or market some product."

Which…. was a positively subversive and devious idea. A normal human would probably be indignant at the idea that their entire society was little more than a collection of competing consumer products markets by different supernatural factions. As a whole it just tickled Akeno's sadistic instinct and made her want to chuckle.

But when she went to offer further snide commentary, Akeno was interrupted by an almighty crash that echoed down from the floor above, raising hair on the back of her neck and setting her teeth on edge.

"Hello? Anyone down there?" A very familiar and unwelcome voice bellowed down the stairs, accompanied by the pounding of feet and a certain eager muttering that made Akeno want to carve her own eyes out with rusty spoons.

"No, no, no, no!"

Gasper's last desperate prayers went unheard, since Naruto burst into the basement apartment with a wide grin on his face and a greasy bag of McDonald's in one hand. "What's going on down here kids? Surfing the web for German scat porn and cheap dildos?"

Covering his eyes, Gasper hunched down and wailed like a babe in arms. "Don't let him get close to me!"

"No!" Akeno screeched like a wild animal, slapping at her plush leather cushions and pointing one spindly finger at the intruding redhead. The half-breed's clear polished nail practically vibrated with repressed violence. "Get the fuck back to your clan work. I know you haven't even gotten _close_ to settling all the shit with the Belial clan."

"Ah, but _come on_ Akeno-chan. I'm bored of that stuffy bullshit. It's too much for me to handle without a relaxing few days off."

"Have you ever tried not being a faggot? I heard it helps greatly with maximizing productivity."

"Fuck you, slut!"

* * *

"Are you joking with me right now?"

"Not at all. He actually fell through the window. Luckily he landed on a bush, so people aren't asking why he didn't break all his bones falling from the second floor."

Sona sighed, pulling off her glasses and throwing them on the desk. Two weeks into her appointment as student council secretary and she was already questioning her sanity. Though to be fair to the pupils of Kuoh Academy, she had one persistent problem to deal with rather than an unruly student body in general. If not for him, she'd have no regrets at all.

Steeling herself, Sona shook her head before shoving her glasses back on her face and bracing her elbows on her desk. It created an image of authority that would intimidate any normal student, but they weren't exactly dealing with a _normal_ classmate. "Let him in."

Ignoring the vaguely worried look Saji gave her, Sona squared her shoulders and settled an impassive indigo stare on Naruto Gremory. "I suppose we expected a bit of settling in, to occur." She admitted before the redhead could even begin to speak, a slow furrow forming between her eyebrows as she studied him. "But don't you think this is a bit much?"

Rias grinned crookedly, looming over Sona's shoulder like a vengeful angel. "I told you that you'd regret not giving him _something_ to do." she reminded Sona with a mixture of malicious glee and fond exasperation in her voice. "You had a fair warning. So don't blame me if you aren't quite up to the task of managing him."

"Hey, come on. Don't talk about me like I'm not here. You might hurt my feelings if you do that." Naruto teased, slouching down in the surprisingly comfortable armchair that was placed opposite to the dark-haired girl. "Nice digs." He complimented, shifting his rear about on the cushion in search of that one perfect position.

Eventually finding a position that satisfied him, Naruto threw his feet up on the desk and clapped gleefully, like a child at the circus. "So what's going on, hmm? Gonna ask me to keep a better eye on our good friend Raynare and make sure she's minding her own business? Or did you just want to ask me how I managed to paint the entire classroom orange over the lunch break?"

"Do _not_." Sona practically snarled, the violence in her voice so unusual that it startled both of the redheads who'd crowded into her office. "I pride myself of being fair and letting all students pursue their interests without judgement, but _your_ interests seem to simply be pranking fellow students and making trouble for the staff."

Lifting his hands in surrender, Naruto set his feet back on the floor. "Whoa now, cool your jets. It's just a bit of fun. This place is boring as fuck for me and I'm not hurting anyone. If anything, it keeps life interesting for them.'

"Regardless." The Sitri heiress opened the top drawer of her desk, pulling out a single sheet of paper that she looked over before nodding in satisfaction. "Rias has proposed a good solution for the problem of your… _energy_. This is your copy, mine is already submitted on file."

Then Sona shoved the page in Naruto's face, crisply flapping it until he cursed and snatched it from her. Blue eyes glanced down and bugged out. "Are you fucking serious? What the hell? I'm not joining the soccer team!"

Deliberately lifting a single condescending eyebrow, Sona smirked. "And why not?"

"Soccer is for sissies!"

"Well you should have thought of that before going on a pranking rampage across the school. It's already been submitted, so no backing out." Dismissing the redhaired troublemaker with a last scornful glance, Sona turned her attention back to this week's club expense report. "In fact, you have your first practice in twenty minutes. I'd hurry on over if you don't want to be sitting on the bench for the rest of the season. Now good day."

"Oh _fuck me._ "

"I would rather not."

Rias began to laugh as Naruto cursed a final time and scrambled out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, throw me a bottle."

Swallowing down a hefty mouthful of water, Issei coughed in a pointless attempt to chase away the pain in his throat. Once it faded he glared at Naruto out of the corner of his eye, grabbing a bottle out of the cooler and passing it to the redhead.

Naruto grinned toothily, wiping away the sweat coating his forehead with the back of his hand. "Everything okay at home?" The question was a bit awkward, with Naruto looking away deliberately and taking a noisy sip of water.

It wasn't like he was friends with Issei, it was just that he'd come to realize the well-meaning perv was the only person on the team that wanted to be around even less than Naruto did. They were bonding over their shared misery.

"Mom's happy, so it's fine." Issei sighed, pinching the front of his shirt and jerking it so it created a bit of a breeze to cool down his sweaty chest. The drills they were running were just _killing_ him. Issei was going to die of heat stroke by the end of the hour, he just knew it. "What about you?"

"Eh, same old, same old." Naruto shrugged, chugging down the rest of his water like he was dying of thirst in the desert. "Rias hasn't been on my back for a few weeks so it's all good. Oh, and we were thinking about putting in a steam shower. Ever tried one out?"

Blinking at the sudden change in topic, Issei tried not to get whiplash and keep the instinctive jealousy off his face. Issei's family wasn't poor by any stretch, but they weren't rich either. It was hard not to envy the Gremory family's casual wealth. "Yeah a few times, but that was years and years ago at some public bath house."

"Damn. I never got a chance to use one myself. Long soaks in the bath were always more my thing. And Sasuke keeps looking at me like I'm a stupid fuck every time I ask him to describe it. I swear that I'm going to flush the toilet every time he gets in the shower for a week straight if he doesn't get his head out of his ass."

"It's kind of like a sauna, but not really." Issei offered unhelpfully, watching the other players work through a few team exercises. Then exactly what Naruto had implied sunk into his brain, and he choked on his water. "Wait, wait." He pounded his chest, wheezing wetly as he peered at the redhead with watery eyes. "Are you saying you _live_ with him?"

"Yep."

"And you _also_ live with your aunt?"

"Well it's not like we're short on space on anything." Naruto snorted. "Everyone's got their own room. It's not like Yuuto and Sasuke and me are all packed in some closet, like hot dogs in a package or something."

Very carefully scrubbing his brain with mental bleach to clear away the images Naruto's words conjured, Issei screwed the cap back on his empty bottle and threw it in the trash can. "That sounds interesting." He commented neutrally, suspecting that if people knew about some of the most attractive people in the school all rooming together that by the end of day rumors of orgies would be spreading.

Which would be kind of funny, but Issei wasn't that much of an asshole that he'd go around tattling on them. If Naruto's odd living arrangements got out, it wouldn't be because he spilled the beans.

"Hyoudou! Gremory! Get off your butts and get back in the game over here!"

Rolling his eyes at the couch, Naruto grumbled under his breath and lurched back to his feet. "Coming?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Raynare pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting back her pounding headache as she scanned over the tabulated results of the latest in a series of observation spells she was quietly casting on Hyoudou.

It wasn't easy to stalk him around town without being noticed, Raynare was far more used to simply letting the humans see her and weep at her perfection; but Lord Azazel had been very clear about her orders, and what he wanted from her was what he got.

Firstly, that she adhere to the general policy of not overtly meddling in human affairs. So seducing the stupid little pervert to get close enough to gather data was out of the question.

Secondly, that she conceal what exactly she was discovering from the Gremory clan and any other faction in the area. The business of the Grigori belonged to them alone. Not to mention that letting rival factions know what they were doing was in general strategically unwise.

Thirdly, do whatever was needed to keep peace with Gehenna. Even if it meant playing nice with a bunch of ignorant little brats and the halfbreed in particular.

Easy peasy – at least in theory. In practice it was a trial in patience.

Flipping to the next page, Raynare found her attention caught by a particularly unique pattern in the graph of Hyoudou's aura. To most the numbers and bars wouldn't mean anything at all, but Raynare was familiar enough with the study of Sacred Gears to clue in.

Hyoudou was practically _seething_ with draconic energy. "Twice Critical then? There's a bit too much power density for that, but I suppose it could just be one of those rare evolved ones." She noted clinically, jotting her observations in the margins of the report.

Lord Azazel would probably never need her insight, but she hoped that he'd decide she had more than air between her ears. Raynare knew that he deserved better than the simpering morons that surrounded him. Someone who was truly dedicated to helping him achieve his goals by any means necessary.

Someone Raynare knew could be her, if she was just given a chance.

After all, who would want to spend their time making contracts with a bunch of shitty mortals or spying on mouthbreathing vampires when they could be the assistant of Lord Azazel himself? To be able to work with the man and actually experience firsthand his charisma and genius would be one of the greatest blessings anyone in the Grigori could achieve.

Smirking slightly, Raynare took a peek at the last page of her weekly report before vanishing it with a sparkle of angelic teleportation magic. Another week down, and who even knew how many to go? Raynare just hoped they went by quickly, for the sake of her sanity if nothing else.

Otherwise she'd give into the urge to start murdering the humans en masse, and bloodstains were such a bitch to get out.

* * *

On the last evening in April Valerie found herself trying out a new brand of shampoo. She wasn't quite sure if Naruto preferred the smell of lavender, but at least she wouldn't be using the same vanilla body wash Rias did. Variety was the spice of life and all that.

Then the raging mental pull of a contract seal being activated hit her like a bullet train, startling the blonde so badly she slipped in the shower and ended up smashing the back of her head against the glass walls of the stall.

Clutching at the crown of her skull, Valerie cursed every deity she could name from Odin to Amaterasu. So what if it was unladylike! There wasn't anyone lurking around in the bathroom to judge her.

Though Naruto wouldn't be unwelcome, she mused before clenching her jaw and massaging away the pain.

"Why is it _me_?" Valerie wondered sourly, briskly scrubbing her pale skin down so violently some of it turned a splotchy red. Let _Ravel_ spend her time running around bowing and begging the humans. It might even give Valerie a bit of time with Naruto without the threat of the other Bishop sticking her nose in and interrupting every time she tried to kiss him.

Satisfied she was clean and in no mood to relax beneath the warm spray of water, Valerie jerked the tap off with a shriek of metal on metal. Her nipples pebbled at the sudden loss of heat, but the dhampir didn't let that bother her, quickly drying off and practically stomping back to her room.

Half of her wanted to just _kill_ whatever human it was that decided to summon her. It wasn't even fair! Her love had just finished hammering out the last details with the Belial clan and passed out contract seal a few days ago, and Valerie was already being summoned for a contract? In principle she didn't mind the work, but Valerie just knew that little grilled chicken slut would pounce on the opportunity to snuggle up to their King while she was gone.

Valerie might _have_ to put up with Ravel and any other wives Naruto collected so that her love could make political alliances, but she'd rather cut her own eyes out than let any of them get the drop on her. Naruto Gremory had never been with a woman, even if _Uzumaki Naruto_ had, and Valerie intended to be the first. Not only would it make giving up her own virginity to him feel more special, but Valerie would make sure that Naruto knew no one could ever love him as much as she did.

Forcing the annoyance off her face, Valerie tried to smooth her expression into something welcoming and she dressed in an orange hoodie and blue jeans at whirlwind speed. There was nothing for it now, she had to represent her King in a bargain and win him a client. Which meant she couldn't come across as too irritated.

When she was satisfied she looked half decent, Valerie typed out a quick text to Naruto telling him she was being summoned for a contract. Then without waiting for a reply she turned on the spot, tearing through the fabric of reality so roughly the lines of her blood red teleportation seal were jagged.

Colours and sound _shifted_ , melding and twisting until Valerie found herself standing with her arms crossed in what looked like a bare concrete basement.

"Ahh, hello Devil-sama."

Valerie looked down at the balding middle-aged man kneeling at her feet, cocking a smooth blonde eyebrow at the expression of mixed fear and awe that he wore on his bearded face.

The contract seal fed the information directly into her brain, and she knew she was dealing with Kurogane Tsuneo; a forty-five-year-old man with undetected prostate cancer.

"Hello mortal." She greeted cool as a cucumber even though she was inwardly panicking and wondering what exactly she _should_ say. If she fucked this up Ravel would just give that smug little smirk of hers. "I'm here to listen to the request you have for the House of Gremory. Now speak."

 _Perfect_. Just the right mixture of formality and intimidation. If she wasn't being watched at that very moment Valerie would be jumping for joy. Ha! That would show that little grilled chicken – Valerie was nowhere _near_ an uncouth commoner.

Mopping at his shining forehead with the dark sleeve of his business suit, the brunette man practically wheezed with nervous desire. "Well I was hoping that I could get a cure for my wife. She has liver failure you see, and the doctors say we can't do anything but wait for the end. I was ready to give up, but then I saw your contract in one of the old books at my office, and…"

And he was desperate, turning to fantasy and the occult when the realm of human science had failed him so completely. He was just the kind of man that a devil could make a contract with, knowing that there was no choice except to make a Faustian bargain.

For the first time since she'd banged her head against the side of the shower, Valerie found her lips stretching into a grin. "And so you want to make a deal. That's fair enough, we _can_ cure your wife's illness for you. The question is what you're willing to give us in return?"

Valerie was fudging the details a little bit. Technically speaking it was possible for her to cure his wife's sickness with Sephiroth Graal, but she'd never actually consciously used her Sacred Gear before. If the human was willing to offer something that Naruto accepted she was certainly willing to _try_ , but until then her healing ability remained in the realm of the theoretical.

"Anything you want. You can have my soul even! Just as long as you heal my Aiko!"

"Bargaining for souls is illegal now." Valerie noted, her scarlet gaze burning like an infernal flame in the dark shadows of the basement. "But I'm sure that my Lord can work something out."

* * *

Once she got over her initial annoyance, Valerie was actually a bit satisfied at her contract. Unlike Ravel she was proving herself to be truly useful and bringing her King an offer that would let him demand whatever he wanted from Tsuneo. Ravel might get a little bit of time to try to put the moves on Naruto, but Valerie was confident the younger girl wouldn't get anywhere in the time she was gone.

Then Valerie teleported into Naruto's bedroom, proud as a peacock and ready to bring her contract to him for approval, only to find her blood boiling at the sight before her.

Ravel was perched in Naruto's lap, one of his hands gripping the inside of her left thigh while his other hand held them upright. Both of Ravel's hands were cupping Naruto's face, lifting his chin so she could kiss him more deeply.

It didn't take Valerie more than a second to guess that Ravel had her tongue in their King's mouth, aggressively demanding the affection that Naruto always seemed hesitant to give. Valerie hated that hesitance when she was kissing him, but she was glad for it now, because if Naruto had no shame then he'd probably be fucking Ravel on the floor this very second.

Slut.

"Hello." Valerie greeted chirpily, grinning maliciously as Ravel gave a quiet shriek of embarrassment before tumbling out of Naruto's lap. Their King didn't do much better, his face flushing a deep cherry red as he stuttered and buttoned his shirt back up.

Roughly clearing his throat, Naruto fumbled with the last pair of buttons at the bottom of his shirt before giving it up as a lost cause. "Everything okay?" he questioned, not daring to bring up the borderline sexual situation that Valerie had interrupted.

Maybe Naruto was too shy to do it, or maybe he was just too sensitive to do so. In either case Valerie was glad, because then she didn't have to discuss her feelings on the matter with him. She couldn't lie for shit to Naruto.

"I was summoned for a contract." Valerie offered up, threading her fingers together so she could project the image of a detached secretary. "One of the humans wants us to cure his wife's liver failure, and he says he's willing to give us anything to do it. I thought the best thing to do was to bring the deal back to you so you could agree to it or not."

Naruto's face contorted strangely, like he wasn't sure whether to be happy or if he wanted to be angry. It made him look odd, his eyes drawn into tense slits while Valerie waited patiently for him to agree to Tsuneo's bargain or not. "I want to say go for it." He admitted slowly, clenching a fist anxiously. "But I don't want you to use _that_."

The existence of Sephiroth Graal hung over all of them like the sword of Damocles, eating away at Valerie's mind and barely kept at bay by constant doses of blood from the more powerful members of their household. The Sacred Gear was a fearsome maddening existence, and Valerie quailed inwardly at the thought of actually willingly seeking it out.

But she was afraid of uselessness more. Valerie wasn't under any illusions. She knew the chance of her becoming some heavy hitter without even touching her Sacred Gear was next to none, while Ravel and Naruto himself had access to famous genetic powers.

Without Sephiroth Graal she wouldn't even begin to close the gap and prove to everyone that Naruto had a reason for keeping her, physical attraction notwithstanding.

"I can do it."

Valerie's quiet declaration cracked through the air like a thunderbolt, and steeling herself the dhampir let her cold ruby gaze drift between Naruto and Ravel. "I can do it." And come hell or high water, she would. She wouldn't be useless any longer. "Sephiroth Graal is too powerful _not_ to use, and if I'm going to learn to control it I need to practice."

"I agree." Ravel's declaration of support shocked both Naruto and Valerie, but the younger blonde just pushed on, jutting her chin out in defiance. "It's counterproductive to coddle Valerie forever given what we want to achieve in the long term. Further, it's two-faced. How can anyone expect her to sit around doing nothing while they themselves gamble their lives for more effective spells?"

It was an argument that cut Naruto right to the core, slicing through all his objections like a silver bullet. The girls might not know every single little detail about his former life, but they knew enough about it and enough about _him_ to be able to say that he was a reckless moron himself. Naruto couldn't warn them off without being a massive hypocrite.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto gave a jerky nod. "Fine. We'll fill the contract. Just be _careful_." His azure orbs flickered like the hottest part of a flame, not embarrassed in the least by giving a half-naked lecture on a weekend evening. "Just remember there's no rush, all right? You fix up his wife without working yourself to the bone."

Not even Naruto could stop time. At least, not _yet_. The world would roll on, and she needed to roll with it or be left behind. Valerie grinned, fully aware there were a few too many teeth in her smile and the slits of her eyes were a little too sharp. "Don't worry about it. I'll be careful, and if I feel like things are rushing over my head I'll come find you."

* * *

The sensation of a contract seal flaring into existence wasn't all that different from the bloody burn of the Mangekyou Sharingan. Pressure built in the back of Sasuke's eye sockets, thrumming slow and heavy as it raced across his nerves and finally spread throughout his entire body.

It was a feeling of dominance, of supplication and of aggression. If Sasuke had to describe the taste of it, he'd half-heartedly point to copper and iron. The metallic taste would be disgusting for those children reared in peace and plenty.

For Sasuke, born and bred for war, that taste was a summons to the field to fulfill his original purpose of existence.

Tearing through the weaves of the mortal plane, Sasuke stepped out into a cramped bedroom. A stained futon was curled into the corner, and a shabby television was perched on the opposite wall with a little beaten table beneath it.

He'd been summoned by someone from the lowest of social classes, so poor that Sasuke could see the wrappers of a dozen desperate instant dinners filling the trash bag that had been thrown into the third corner of the apartment.

Everything was filthy and destitute, from the rusty half-kitchen to the barely private bathroom.

"Aoki Yoshino." Sasuke murmured, drawing deeply from the instinctive information the contract seal fed him. "What do you want?"

A gaze as dark and sharp as shards of ebony settled on a mutinous fourteen-year-old, her lip pursing out rebelliously. Yoshino was the stereotypical image of a cocky child that refused to accept any rules, raging up and down the streets of her hometown until she finally settled into becoming a boring middle-class mother with a few amusing stories.

But the image didn't quite match the reality, and the more Sasuke studied Yoshino's averted stare and faintly shaking limbs, the more he realized that his contractor wasn't as bland as he'd assumed. "Make your request and make your offer." Sasuke prodded, his voice softer but still unyielding. "Otherwise there can be no contract."

Yoshino's hands spasmed, the jerky motion riding up to her shoulders in a faint quiver that set her green streaked ponytail bobbing. Between the dye job and the silver hoop piercing through her left eyebrow, the teen girl didn't seem like someone that should be so nervous before a devil that only looked like a sixteen-year-old boy.

"I want you to kill someone for me." She threw it down like a gauntlet, vindictive fire colouring her tone. It was like the girl was just daring Sasuke to judge her, to reject her request as too complicated or too immoral.

Well, Sasuke reflected, the venomous red of the Sharingan whirling into existence, this might be a little interesting after all. Bargaining for souls or stealing them was outlawed by the treaty with Heaven, but killing humans was technically not.

Ignoring Yoshino's gasp of shock, the Uchiha studied her through the relentless clarity of his eyes. Everything was thrown into sharp relief, from the bead of sweat glistening at the human's temple to the frantic nervous pulse fluttering in the hollow of her throat.

"Go on."

* * *

"I'll do it."

Valerie popped in behind Kurogane while the man was cooking his dinner, pulling a startled scream from the mortal and a failing jerk that spilled half-boiled rice all across the kitchen. The boiling water barely missed her, splattered on the floor in a steaming puddle.

Picking a few white grains off her frilly green sundress as Tsuneo gaped at her, Valerie dropped them back in the pot before giving the man a _look_. "I can wait in the entryway if you need some time to clean up." Then without waiting for him to stop sputtering she turned on her heel and stalked from the kitchen.

It was only once she left the room that Valerie heard the man finally start _moving_ , muttering nervously beneath his breath as he hastily swept up his ruined meal. The cleaning gave her a few moments to think, turning over the bargains Rias suggested after Naruto made it clear he didn't want anything in particular from Kurogane.

Once she settled on what she felt was the best, Valerie bounced on her toes in boredom for a lengthy minute before the hefty man finally seemed to get things in order, popping out of the kitchen babbling an apology.

Wiping at the sweaty gleaming balding dome, Tsuneo readjusted his glasses and peered at the beautiful damphir with nervous brown eyes. "Ahh, Valerie-sama; I wasn't expecting you to return so quickly. Not that it's a problem!" he reassured hastily when he realized that might be taken as an insult. "I just assumed, that is to say, well umm…"

"Relax, Kurogane." Valerie's voice cracked like a whip, an irritated line growing between her eyebrows. Maybe Sasuke would get some sadistic amusement out of the human's obvious fear, but Valerie just found it to be an enormous waste of time. The longer she had to put up with his anxiety the longer it would take to get back to Naruto. "I'm accepting the contract. I'll heal your wife's liver failure and even fix that prostate cancer you haven't figured out that you have for a million yen."

The pure shock that rippled across Tsundeo's plain features actually was kind of amusing, though Valerie couldn't blame him for the reaction. Her services were priceless comparatively, since while a million yen sounded like a lot it wouldn't even buy a car. She easily could have demanded much more from him.

 _Patience_. Better to be generous now and get any future contracts that Tsuneo and his family would ever make. More money was always good but the Gremory clan wasn't exactly pinching pennies at the moment. A reputation for fair deals and compassion among the spiritually aware humans mattered more than profit.

Not to mention that her King was a kind man and probably would have offered the healing _for free_ if he saw how frantic Kurogane was. Naruto would be disappointed in her if she used her gifts to price gouge.

"Are you capable of that much?" Valerie prodded dryly when the silence seemed to go on, sparking Tsuneo to blubber out a quick agreement and promises he'd get her the money by the end of the hour if she wanted it.

He was probably afraid it was a bait and switch and that she'd give him a smirk, taunting him and saying she'd never really offer such a precious service for so little.

How irritating.

Snapping her fingers at the man before he got it into his head to run to the bank at that very second, Valerie frowned. "Enough, we'll get the money later. It's time to go fix your wife. I assume she's at the nearest hospital and hasn't been transferred to a larger one?"

"Yes, yes! I actually rented this apartment just to be close by while she was undergoing treatment. It's just down the street." Tsuneo smiled weakly, giving the devil girl a wide berth as he searched for his coat and shoes. "It'll only take a minute to get there. And uh, you wouldn't mind if we pretended you were my niece? People will ask less questions if it's a family visit."

When Tsuneo came to a slow stop, hunched over with his right foot halfway in his shoe, Valerie had enough. The bowing and scraping was getting ridiculous.

Rather than answer him, the blonde just clicked her tongue and walked out the front door, squinting through the red light of the setting sun until her eyes adjusted. "Let's go before visiting hours are over, _Uncle_."

Then she was striding up the street towards the medical center she could see in the distance, leaving Kurogane to fumble through the rest of his preparations and rush out after her.

Once the hefty man caught up with her, Valerie slowed her pace and let him take the lead while she fell back into the storm of her thoughts.

Despite her mask of confident determination, the Bishop was anxious. Blood tamed her Sacred Gear, but if she turned her mind to it she could still hear Sephiroth Graal whispering in the back of her brain like a thousand ghosts. Valerie could almost _feel_ it picking away at her sanity, one slow thread at a time.

If she didn't eventually master Sephiroth Graal, she would go mad. But to do that required Valerie actually _use it_ , which had risks of its own. Could she put a leash on Holy Grail of the Secluded World, or would it destroy her first?

She didn't know, and that scared her almost as much as becoming useless to her King did.

Vaguely Valerie was aware they entered the hospital, and the stink of disinfectant and death burned her nostrils while she screwed on a polite vapid smile for any staff or visitors that happened to look her way.

Between her drab behavior and the tiny spells she fired off from time to time to short-circuit every camera she saw, Valerie was confident that no one would think she was anything special. To them she was just another unremarkable stranger out of hundreds that slipped in and out of the hospital every day to see dying relatives.

"She's just in the third room on the right." Tsuneo murmured conspiratorially, prompting Valerie to roll her eyes to high heaven.

Finally.

Gliding into the stale hospital room like a wraith out of myth, Valerie took a second to confirm that Aiko's fellow patients were gone from the room and that the ward's doctor wasn't lurking about behind the curtains. Once she was satisfied they were truly alone, she cracked her knuckles.

Scarlet sparks flew from her nails as a minor cantrip shut and barred the door behind them. "I hope you've already told her everything." Valerie sighed, turning to gaze down at the sickly woman that was gaping up at her from the bed.

Kurogane Aiko looked like a strong gust of wind would kill her. Her skin was swallow and tinged yellow, drawn paper-thin over skeletal limbs and sunk into her bony cheeks. Toss in the salt and pepper strands of lanky hair hanging from her skull and the ill woman looked like a broken little baby bird.

It was enough to move Valerie to pity for the first time since she'd actually been summoned for the contract. She didn't care about Tsuneo or Aiko, but in another time and in another world, it might have been her lying broken and defeated in her sick bed, waiting to die or be swallowed up by insanity.

Sparing one last glance for Tsuneo and the balding man's barely contained desperation, Valerie reached out her hand and began.

For one moment the blonde experienced a sensation of surreal falling and abject wonder. Before her mind's eye she beheld an ink dark abyss, the reigning shadows pierced through here and there by distant stars. Green and red and blue and purple they burned, defiant against the void.

And then the Grail came to her, sacred and gleaming golden and full of the light of the dawn. Fire rose in her lungs and ice fell down her spine, chilling and burning and smashing with the voice of all the ghosts of creation crying out.

_(Save us.)_

Something inside Valerie splintered, but with a final wrench she stepped back and breathed in. Dark slit crimson eyes snapped open, staring at the single shining goblet that was clenched in her white knuckled hand.

Guided by instinct as old as the bones of time, Valerie held her free hand above the empty cup. Then she _squeezed_ , nails shredding through the flesh of her palms until her own sticky blood dripped down, filling Sephiroth Graal to the brim and then running over.

Strangely, the fluid that dripped down vanished in red streamers of smoke as it hit the floor, but hazily Valerie decided not to think too closely on it. Her mind was already too full of godliness, with the consecrated – _profane_ – secrets of life dribbling from her ears in silver streams only her eyes could perceive.

Again she splintered.

"Drink."

And again.

"Both of you."

And again.

_Yet mad I am not._

_Not yet._


	4. Chapter 4

A light pattering of rain dripped like free-falling tears, turning the paved paths of Kabukichou wet and slick with moisture. Between the oily asphalt beneath his heels and the flickering neon signs that burned through the misty darkness, Sasuke felt right right at home.

In this modern industrialized wasteland where bars lined the streets and love hotels peeked out furtively from the alleyways, Sasuke felt the shinobi inside of him truly come alive. A fluorescent dystopia wasn't the same as the feudal dirt streets of Konoha, but it was close enough for him.

Narrowing his eyes as a trio of brash young hooligans came up the sidewalk towards him crowing about their latest act of vandalism, Sasuke reached up and pulled the hood of his deep blue sweatshirt down a little bit more. He didn't have time to deal with idiot children who wanted to prove their so-called masculinity.

Once he passed them by without a second glance, Sasuke turned into the first alley on the left so he could lean his back against the wet brick wall. His Sharingan sputtered into being like an electric ember, glowing faintly as Sasuke looked across the thoroughfare at a particularly grimy saloon.

"Revenge, huh?"

Well he wasn't enough of a hypocrite to complain or moralize about it.

Aoki's story wasn't particularly unique or compelling. Her father had been a lay-about while her mother slaved to make ends meet, gambling their family deeper and deeper into debt at various local dens. Eventually he'd borrowed from the wrong loan shark, and when he couldn't pay the man back Yoshino's father had been killed as an example while her mother was told to shoulder the debt.

It was a story that had happened a thousand different times in a thousand different worlds, and Sasuke was just jaded enough not to go out of his way to offer charity for every sob story that reached his ears. He could have asked Rias to pay the debt off if he wanted to, but Sasuke wasn't _that_ involved in the idea of sympathy.

But blood and vengeance was something that Sasuke knew down to his bones, and intrigued him enough to take the deal.

Once Sasuke took Machii Kenichi's life, Yoshino would abandon the Buddhist teachings of her family, converting to Christianity and raising her children in the faith. She would also never bargain with anyone besides Rias or her peerage.

A bit too complex of a contract for a simple murder, but Yoshino had agreed to it, and Sasuke really didn't see any alternatives. She was a fourteen-year-old girl living on the edge of poverty. So since he couldn't get cold hard cash from her, Sasuke would at least lock down the passive power her worship generated for Gehenna's allies and make sure any descendants she had did the same.

Rias might even be impressed at his forward thinking, as long as he didn't make a habit of undercutting rival pantheons in every contract he made.

Exhaling a warm puff of white steam in the chilly air, Sasuke looked both ways before ambling across the street, hands in his pockets. Machii supposedly spent his Wednesday evenings drinking his face off at Rock House WESTERN, and if the man had stuck to schedule he wouldn't be making it home alive.

When the bouncer moved to ask Sasuke for his ID, the Uchiha glared at the man so violently he just gulped and let the Uchiha pass. A man might be willing to fight for a paycheque, but humans were not so far removed from their instincts that they couldn't recognize the presence of something greater than mere mortality.

The sour scent of mingled tobacco and rice wine slapped Sasuke in the face when he stepped into the poorly lit bar. It wasn't outright filthy, but there was just enough grime to set his teeth on edge and let him know viscerally that he was entering the hunting grounds for Tokyo's carnivores.

Unfortunately for them, Sasuke was the apex predator in this jungle, and no buzzcut beefcake stood a chance against him.

Throwing back his hood and shaking out his damp mane, Sasuke schooled his face into an icy expression before approaching the bar. "Kirin. Ichiban if you've got it, but none of that light piss." He told the bartender, not batting an eyelash at the snake tattoo that coiled up the man's bare left arm.

Pale green eyes assessed the newcomer for only a moment before the man grunted and pulled a glass out from under the counter, filling it with a heady spray from the dispenser before pushing the lager towards Sasuke.

There was no demand Sasuke pay up immediately, or even a threat that he'd better cover his tab before leaving. That wasn't how they did business here. It wasn't necessary, and they both knew it.

Not bothering to thank the bartender, Sasuke took his drink and found his way to an empty barstool at the very end of the counter, sliding onto scratched red leather with a frown.

Sitting in plain sight as he was, hunched over his beer and nursing the golden brew, no one would suspect Sasuke was planning any trouble.

They wouldn't suspect that he'd chosen his seat so that he could keep an eye on the mirror that reflected the entire bar behind him, planning the assassination of one of their frequent customers.

Sasuke let the hours run late into the night, sipping down one lager after another as he kept quiet and donned the façade of a typical sullen boy on the cusp of manhood. No one approached him or asked any questions besides the bartender, who offered to top his glass up every time it was nearly empty.

When the clock struck quarter to eleven, Machii lurched to his feet with a burp, telling the two buddies he'd been sitting with that he was going to take a piss. Then the loan shark staggered off, scratching the bristles of his shorn head as he made his way to the bathroom.

Sasuke let a cautious minute pass before slinking his own way to the bathroom, leaving his beer half-finished on the counter with a nod to the bartender. "Just going for a leak." He muttered, pushing through the pockmarked door and into the cramped facilities.

With only a single stall and one urinal it wasn't much, but that was enough to make things work.

The Pawn's hand was already lit up with a tiny crackle of lightning by the time Machii's instincts screamed at him that something was wrong.

It only took a little tap to the shoulder for the electricity raging in Sasuke's hand to strike at Machii's heart, sending the blond man into cardiac arrest and paving the route to a murder without consequence. A knife or a bullet would have raised questions, but a heart attack was _just_ natural enough that it could be ignored by a police force that didn't care about investigating the death of known criminals.

Sasuke sneered down cruelly, his lip curling in contempt as the wannabe gangster twitched out his death throes on the filthy tiles, grim and urine soaking Kenichi's clothes. "At least you didn't shit yourself." He snorted, lifting the loan shark up by the collar and shoving the man into the bathroom stall.

Hopefully anyone that peeked in would assume Machiii was just caught up with a particularly stubborn bout of constipation. Assuming anyone bothered to look for the man at all before the bar closed.

Taking a moment to careful wash his hands with the cheap soap the bar offered, Sasuke smirked bitterly at his reflection before leaving the bathroom. He had a drink to finish and a tab to pay, and by the time anyone found Kenichi's body Sasuke would be long gone.

* * *

Akeno covered her mouth and yawned, scowling at the electric red numerals that were hovering above kitchen stove. Considering it was half past midnight she should have gone to bed hours ago, but she had promised Rias that she'd stay up and wait for Sasuke to make his way back home.

Nibbling absently at a slice of cheese, the dark-haired young woman wondered how her life had turned into being Rias' matchmaker.

Signing up to be her Queen was one thing but pretending to be her lover for Gehenna's rumor mill was another, and Rias' love for Sasuke only made the whole charade even more complex. Add onto that everything else Akeno found herself doing to push those two together and it was a wonder she even found time to sleep.

Life would be so much easier if Rias was interested in her instead. Akeno wouldn't even hesitate to return her mistress' affection, and they could be together openly and without hesitation. Gehenna might judge them for not being good little baby factories, but there was no law against noble-commoner lesbian relationships.

And if Sasuke still got involved after that, well; Akeno wouldn't complain. Both the Ruin Princess and her Pawn were rather delicious to look at. They were probably even more delightful to actually taste.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke prodded as he stepped out of the shadows of the hallway, rubbing a towel over his wet hair. The young man had ditched his shirt at some point after entering the house, revealing a pale chest and the corded muscles of his abdomen.

The faint fluorescent backlights of the kitchen appliances added an eerie glow to the Pawn's skin, but it wasn't a bad look in Akeno's opinion. In fact, the greyed undertone that shadowed Sasuke' navel was oddly attractive. It made Akeno want to trace her tongue along those dimmed lines.

Dragging her violet gaze away from the trim planes of Sasuke's stomach, Akeno fixed her focus on his face and tried to avoid looking down. Akeno had made her choice. She'd buried her desires so the people she loved could be happy without complications. She had no intention of abandoning that road now. "I didn't know you got in."

Sasuke just snorted at that, as if the idea that he'd make noise entering his own home was absurd. And considering his years of training as a shinobi in the other world, maybe it was a silly notion. "Anything new happen while I was out?"

Readjusting the collar of her negligee, Akeno hummed in thought. "Valerie made it back a few hours ago with her contract payment, which was _interesting_ , but beyond that nothing."

She very carefully didn't think of the way Sasuke's eyes flickered to her cleavage when she played with her neckline. Thinking about it meant she had to admit she wanted him to look, and that opened an entirely new can of worms no one wanted to deal with.

" _Interesting_." Sasuke drawled slowly, throwing the damp blue towel on the table before stepping forward and settling his elbows on the countertop. With Akeno seated on the other side of the island they were practically nose-to-nose, their expressions fey and intense. "Out with it then."

A mocking curl stretched Akeno's lips, all deceptive lines and poisonous promises. Maybe it was too mocking and sadistic but she couldn't help it. She wanted him to swallow her sharp edges while she swallowed his. "There's something _off_ about Valerie. I don't really know how you'd describe it. That contract took a lot out of her."

"I see."

Sasuke's acknowledgement was bland and uninterested, the Pawn turning away to pour himself a warm cup of water out of the tap. The action fit Sasuke's modus operandi of pretending to not give a damn about anything, but years of familiarity allowed Akeno to pick out the clenched knot that lay between his bare shoulders.

That actually nettled Akeno a little. Valerie had a rough go of it, but there was no need for Sasuke to get all anxious about her. He had better things to focus on than Naruto's Bishop. Rias for one.

Akeno was definitely not the other.

 _Definitely_.

Combing a few errant strands out of her eyes, Akeno quirked a small grin at Sasuke's tense back. "That said, I'm not too worried about it. Naruto has a good handle on her so we should have some warning if she decides to go off the rails."

A sardonic chuckle burst from Sasuke's throat as he set his empty glass aside, but he didn't dispute Akeno's little theory. Instead he just turned on his heel and strode across the cramped kitchen to loom over her. "True enough. Now, you should be in bed at this hour rather than lurking here and stuffing your face with cheese."

"Is there _something wrong_ with cheese?" Akeno muttered crabbily, her voice thick with irritation even as she yielded to the pressure of Sasuke's hand on the small of her back. That gesture of expectation had her rising off her stool to toddle off to bed without a second thought.

If Sasuke wasn't so much bigger than her he'd have a much harder time convincing her to do anything.

But he _was_ , towering over the Thunder Priestess like she was a little kid and he was her fucking father.

"Now go crawl in. Don't worry your pretty little head over whatever nonsense Naruto's peerage gets caught up in." The demand was coated in sugary mockery, but Akeno still heard the determined steel under it.

Sasuke was being _cautious_ , for some reason or another, and wanted her to stay out of the way while he and Naruto did their protective monkey-man huddles. It was kind of sweet in its own way, but annoying too. Despite what Sasuke thought, Akeno was more than strong enough to ride out whatever chaos Naruto's love triangle caused.

In fact, maybe Akeno would pay extra close attention to Valerie from now just to spite him.

* * *

The weeks rolled on into the sweltering heat of summer, and by the time the end of June came around Naruto wanted to just lay down on the road and die somewhere. "Satan's saggy nuts, I can't handle it anymore."

"That's what she said."

Rolling over on his belly, Naruto cracked open one glittering azure eye and glared at Ravel for all he was worth. Which wasn't very much considering half his face was smushed against the hardwood floor of his fiance's bedroom. "Turn on the fucking AC for fuck's sake."

Ravel just turned the next page in her book, her stocking clad legs curled up under her. A tantalizing strip of milky skin showed between the top of her stripe stockings and the hem of her chaste white sundress.

"No more. _No more_." Naruto whined, running a hand through his sweaty red locks and flopping onto his back with a gasp. "Someone _help_ – I'm seeing the light. It's the end of the line for me. It's too late! Goodbye." Then he closed his eyes and went limp, tongue lolling out.

"Oh, and someone tell Sasuke to get rid of my dildo collection before Mom finds out about it. _That_ would make things pretty awkward at the funeral."

Snorting at that, Ravel finally gave in and shut her copy of Heidigger's _Being and Time_. "Fine, we'll go out back and swim in the pool for a few hours. Maybe that'll stop your bitching."

Naruto came alive at that, surging to his feet and tearing his t-shirt off with a grin. A few beads of eye-catching perspiration glistened over his sleek stomach. "Perfect. Last one out has to pay for the ramen."

Then he was gone, the sound of his bare feet slapping over the floor fading into the distance as the Gremory heir raced back to his room for a change of clothes.

Ravel smirked fondly, shaking her head as she lazily crawled out of her bed and made her way over to the closet. She wasn't dumb enough to think she could beat Naruto to the pool, but she knew that she could still dazzle him once she got there if she picked the right outfit.

Poking through the handful of swimsuits that hung from their thin brass coathangers, Ravel hummed absently in thought. She instantly dismissed the Kuoh Academy one piece as too conservative, and what looked to be nothing more than a couple of red strings as too risqué. Her dumbass brother had probably thought sneaking _that_ into her wardrobe was a good idea.

What would convey both sensuality and innocence? Ravel still struggled sometimes with picking the perfect fashion, but oddly enough said idiot brother's lessons always came through for her.

Honestly, Riser might be a bit of an idiot savant.

She tried very hard not to think about the borderline sexual incestuous absurdity that came with asking _Riser_ for fashion and romance advice. Gehenna's taboos were few, but _that_ was one of them. Genetic bottlenecks were a very big no-no for devils.

Eventually the blonde put her brother out of her mind and settled on an orange bikini with bright blue ruffles. For some reason Naruto was obsessed with the color, and it wouldn't look too bad with her complexion, so it was probably suitable.

Ravel changed her clothes in a trice, keeping one wary eye on the unlocked door as she shimmied into her bikini bottoms. Her sundress she left in a crumpled ball in the corner, figuring she could clean it up later as she rushed out into the hallway.

Making her way across the mansion the Gremory clan had bought and renovated once they'd decided to start spreading their influence into Kuoh, Ravel repressed a grin. Sure, she'd been enjoying her book but a private pool party with her fiancé would be better.

Much better. Maybe she'd even sneak a few kisses.

Ravel might even get to escalate her seduction of the redhead. Naruto had stopped treating her like a child, but he was still so irritatingly worried about doing everything perfectly. Ravel didn't need to be _coddled_ into intimacy, and one day she'd make him see that.

Ravel's bare feet pattered against the floor as she rushed past a slightly baffled looking Yuuto, ignoring the young man's half-hearted greeting. It was a little rude, but she wasn't about to stay and chat when she had Naruto waiting for her.

Valerie by contrast was not so easily ignored, especially since Ravel raced around the corner and ran right into her, sending them both stumbling.

"Sorry." Ravel mumbled reflexively, sweeping her bangs out of her eyes before she stepped to the side.

The other Bishop didn't reply, just _watching_ as Ravel made her way down the rest of the corridor. If not for the heavy weight of Valerie's eyes on her back, Ravel could have believed the other girl had just silently slinked off.

It took a clenched jaw for the blonde to fight back the instinctive shiver that wanted to rage up her spine. Ravel had never liked Valerie, but she'd never had any reason to worry about her before. Compared to the mutual resentment and distant civility of before, the concern Ravel was starting to feel was very new indeed.

Even Akeno had seemed to notice something was strange before apparently getting distracted by something new and shiny.

Maybe it was the miserable contracts that rolled in from time to time asking for the dhampir's miracle healing, or maybe it was the effort Valerie was putting in to master her Sacred Gear; Ravel couldn't be sure. But there was something dark and brittle now in that slit crimson gaze that she didn't like.

Ravel didn't want to see those shadows grow any deeper. For all of their sakes.

* * *

Scowling at the heat, Raynare fanned her face with an idle hand, furtively casting a tiny ice spell that brought blessed coolness to her tiny self-made breeze.

If Raynare had a choice she'd be on a white sand beach somewhere sunbathing in the nude, perhaps in the company of a few _interesting individuals_. But instead she got a gopher mission to watch a mouthbreathing pervert and had to stand around in the urban summer watching said pervert struggle his way through a high school soccer game.

What a wretched sideshow her life had become. If her mission extended into perpetuity Raynare imagined she'd have killed herself out of boredom by the end of the year.

At least she got to see that Gremory idiot run around with that delightfully miserable expression on his face. A little bit of itching powder in the little prick's jockstrap had worked wonders.

Giving one last sigh of ennui, Raynare folded her hands in her lap and lounged back against the bleachers, lazily watching Hyoudou as he puffed and gasped his way across the field. She'd never been enough of a fan of sports to learn all the rules, but going by the clock the match would finally be over in three minutes.

Then she could make her move.

Raynare drummed her fingers on her knee, chewing the inside of her cheek for a few seconds before stopping dead.

Fuck.

She was actually _nervous_. The Fallen Angel wasn't afraid by any means, but she had only one chance to tie everything up neatly and she didn't want to fuck it all up. Failure would be survivable but that didn't mean it would be enjoyable.

Though with how stupid and unware Hyoudou seemed to be, she didn't think it was failing was all that likely. In fact, it almost made her want to laugh. _This?_ This utterly bland and mediocre boy was supposed to be the next legendary Red Dragon Emperor? Compared to Vali he was a slug – a dustmite!

If God were still alive she'd accuse the old bastard of enacting some kind of twisted black comedy for his senile amusement. Pitting the grandson of the original Lucifer against some no name human was charmingly cruel.

Still it was all the better for her. An ignorant human was no threat to her, and if he died tonight he'd never grow to be one.

It was such a waste though – if Azazel hadn't taken Vali in as his own son it might have been worth it to try and turn Hyoudou into her personal toy. The things she could accomplish with that kind of power behind her made Raynare want to drool.

Alas, there was no way any lasting truce could exist between Ddraig and Albion, and Raynare had no intention of cuddling an imbecilic serpent to her breast only to have him murder Vali in a few decades. Maybe Azazel would forgive her for it, but that didn't mean that her general wouldn't grieve at the loss.

No, it was much better to just kill the boy now before he became a threat. Otherwise he'd keep drifting into the Gremory clan's sphere of influence and eventually put the power of Boosted Gear at their service. Just the thought of the devils getting their hands on the Longinus put a cold tingle of fear in her spine.

That could never be allowed to happen. The Grigori were already the weakest faction within the Biblical pantheon. Losing even more ground could lead to subjugation or extinction at the hands of the devils or angels.

Raynare swallowed dryly as the referee gave a screeching whistle to signal end of the game and a victory for the home team.

Show time. No pressure.

Hopping to her feet with the crowd of fellow students, proud parents, and bored siblings Raynare allowed herself to be swept forward by the crush of bodies. A smile slid onto her face with the practiced ease of centuries of experience, and the fallen angel waited until the herd thinned out before approaching.

Issei lurked by the water cooler, wiping the sweat from his tired face with a fluffy white hand towel. It was kind of pathetic that none of his friends or family had come to see his first game, but Raynare put that callously amused thought out of her mind. She had a role to play.

"Hyoudou-kun?" Raynare chirped, her expression all innocence and her voice sweeter than syrup. A minor illusion sprayed a faint blush across her cheekbones. "That was a good game."

Issei flushed as red as a tomato, stuttering thickly with shy confusion. "Uh, thanks?" Brown eyes flickered from the young girl to the rest of the slowly dispersing crowd and back again. "You're… Amano-san, right?"

Nodding with a tiny smile, Raynare tucked a strand of her glossy midnight dark hair behind her ear. Then she peeked up through her eyelashes at the lanky brunette. "Amano Yuuma – we're in the same class." She clarified in a slow halting tone. Men like Hyoudou liked shy, vulnerable girls, and she played that role to the hilt. "I was wondering…"

Issei fidgeted, the light in his gaze shocked and almost manic. He practically exuded the air of a nervous young virgin that had never spoken to a pretty girl in his life before. Hooking him was like shooting fish in a barrel.

"I really like you! Please go out with me?"

"Huh?" Issei just short-circuited, his mouth falling open into a slight gape as he stared at Raynare like he'd just had a stroke. It was rather unflattering, if she had to say so herself. Her patience paid off though, when the blush on his face intensified and spread down his neck as he vigorously agreed.

The illusory flush on Raynare's face deepened, the fallen angel nodding faintly as she took a few steps away before turning back. "We can – I see you sometimes when I'm walking to school in the mornings, so we can walk home maybe?" The words came out in a demure stumble, whisper soft with the uncertain bashfulness of a girl with her first crush.

Issei grinned, the redness in his skin fading slightly as he seemed to dig up a bit of male confidence. Or maybe his balls finally dropped in that moment. Either way, he consented easily to her little request and followed at Raynare's heels like an eager puppy as she led the way from Kuoh Academy's soccer field.

"What do you like to do, Amano-san?" Issei forced out, holding his gym back against as side as the pair crossed out onto the streets, the dark asphalt lit up with the golden pink light of the setting sun. "Besides soccer I guess."

Raynare repressed the urge to roll her eyes, instead dropping back to link their arms together. Predictably Issei practically steamed at the ears, leading her to wonder if she'd ever been so easily flustered. "Ahh, well, to be honest Hyoudou-kun I really like playing online games."

It was even _true_ , Rayanre chuckled inwardly. Like most fallen angels she had a taste for the continually evolving technology humans produced, and throwing away a few hours on some MMO to grind up her levels was surprisingly fun. "I'm a bit of a nerd, really."

"No, no!" Issei waved his hands as best he could in an attempt to reassure his impromptu date. "You don't need to feel embarrassed! There's nothing wrong with enjoying a new game or whatever. Anyone that doesn't agree is just being an old grampa."

Raynare patted Issei's elbow, shifting slightly in a way that pressed the swell of her breast against his left bicep. "I knew you'd understand, Issei-kun." She breathed, upgrading the level of besotted familiarity she was portraying. Between her physical beauty and the person she was pretending to be, Issei didn't stand a chance.

The rest of their little stroll passed in a similar fashion, Raynare deflecting or making up pointless small talk with the ignorant human while she kept a keen eye on their surroundings. She couldn't detect any supernatural beings watching them, and even if she was really alone there will still certain unspoken rules to go by. She could hardly whip out a spear of light and stab him with it in the middle of the street.

Red sunlight slanted away as the night went on with Issei easily distracted by the enthralling presence of a beautiful young girl finally expressing interest in him for once in his life. No doubt he had parents waiting for him at home, but between Raynare's natural beauty and the suggestive illusions she conjured the boy completely forgot about anyone that wasn't Amano Yuuma.

When the clock struck eight with an echoing chime that rang through the air, Issei finally shook off his daze and checked his watch; only to for his eyes to bug out with the realization he'd frittered away two hours walking and chatting with the dark-haired girl. "I'm sorry Amano-san!" Issei moaned, checking his cell phone to see five missed calls. "I really have to run."

Pouting at Issei with a wobble to her lower lip, Raynare brushed away the glimmering tears that crowned her eyelashes. "I'm sorry, Issei-kun." She mumbled, her fingers working at the folds of her skirt with visible nervousness. "I didn't mean to take up your time. Just before you go could I get a hand with something? Just for a second."

"Sure." Issei agreed with a hesitant smirk, slinging his thumbs in his belt loop. "I'm already late getting home, so a couple more minutes won't make a difference." Then without any hesitance he followed Raynare into a dim side alley. "Did you have a something you needed to pick up?"

Considering the back entrances to half a dozen businesses that lined the side-street, it was a fair question to ask. Unfortunately for Hyoudou, Raynare had something very different in mind. "Not quite. I just needed you to do one thing for me." She sighed, her face shadowed by the overhang of her bangs.

With her back to the human he didn't even notice when she slipped a hand into her generous cleavage and grasped cold steel with long fingers.

"Okay?"

A sadistic smile curved Raynare's mouth, all sharp edges and rigid heartlessness. "I need you to die for me." In that second she shed all the gentle caress in her words, leaving only hungry iron as she whipped out a black pistol and pressed the barrel against Issei's breastbone. "Or is that too much to ask, Issei-kun?"

" _It is."_ A new voice cut in, deep and cold with the promise of a true grave and the end to centuries.

A flash of searing sacred light laid Raynare's cheek open to the bone, her very blood steaming with the purifying force left in the wake of a spear she hadn't seen in four hundred years. And for the first time in ages, Raynare knew real fear.


	5. Chapter 5

There was something to be said about mortality.

Coming in sudden contact with it brought Issei a mixture of clarity and hysteria. When Yuuma shoved the black barrel of a pistol against his breastbone his mind went to pieces, wondering why the hell this was happening to him? He was just some average kid, so who had he offended so badly in a past life that he was going to get killed by the first girl who ever expressed interest in him?

It was enough to make his mouth taste bitter as his heart lurched into a racing beat in his chest, frantically thundering along as if that was the key to remaining alive.

If his heart had awareness of its own, it was probably thinking that if it just pushed enough adrenaline through his body in that split second, he'd be able to dodge a bullet from point blank. The human elevated to the superhuman by nothing but sheer willpower.

How stupidly pointless.

Issei couldn't even enjoy the last thing he was going to see as a living man, since Yuuma's face seemed hyperreal and monstrous to him.

Oh, she was classically beautiful, down to the fine glossy lashes that his adrenaline-enhanced vision could individually pick out in that last moment. But the shadows of the alley and the aggressive expression she wore twisted everything into a final minute nightmare.

He blinked, and light crashed through that instant like a meteor.

Something like glass shattered over Yuuma's face as she reeled back, a thick streak of blood trickling down her cheek that Issei barely noticed because she suddenly looked much older and much more dangerous. The shift from a soft-faced girl to a mature woman was so dramatic and noticeable that Issei had only one thought in his skull.

What the actual _fuck_? Was this _magic_?

Violet eyes darkened with an internal flame, and the pistol in her hands roared.

Another white-gold flash filled the world, heavy with something so ancient and undefinable that Issei had no words. He was struck mute and motionless, only able to stare in terrified wonder.

Being shoved to the side and banging his head against the iron of the nearest loading bay door didn't help him come up with a way to describe it.

"Fuck." Issei heard Yuuma swear, with even her voice deeper and more mature as _something_ came back around. The majestic presence intensified, making Issei pale and choke at the pressure that bore down on him.

Was he going to die for the second time in five minutes? Well between a bullet and a fucking eldritch abomination he'd have definitely picked the former. A bullet was painful, but it was clean compared to the slew of images and impressions Issei struggled to put together.

The sacred presence.

Sleek dark blue lines _moved_ , a pillar of golden light held in one hand as a human moved with inhuman grace.

More screams, more blood, and then purple stars and magenta crystal flickered, vanishing with a shower of midnight dark feathers that shone like rainbow slick beneath the porch lamps of half a dozen closed shops.

"Gods." Issei whispered, pupils blown so wide that there was only a thin limbal ring of wood-brown surrounding them. His crotch was wet, but he couldn't even muster up any shame at having pissed himself. " _Gods_!"

The overwhelming sensation of pure power remained for another watchful heartbeat before dying away, sacred sorcery dispersing at the sound of a deep scoff. "Gods? Let me tell you something kid, there were no gods here tonight. Destiny is in the hands of men."

Bright blue orbs looked down at Issei's cowering form with nothing but pure contempt in them for a long second, but then that disdain shifted to a more neutral curiosity. "So that's how it is." He spoke, his voice thick with realization.

"How what is?"

The taller man didn't anything else though, just exhaling slowly through his nose before turning on his heel and walking away. In one moment he saved Issei's bacon, and in the next he dismissed the younger man as if he was just an uninteresting piece of scenery. The difference was enough to cause whiplash.

"Wait." Issei croaked, standing on shaking knees and stumbling after the stranger who had just saved his life. "Wait!"

Amazingly the _magician_ – the only thing Issei could think of to describe him – did, glaring over his shoulder at the brunette. "What." Contrary to his hostile bearing, there seemed to be no actual heat underlying it.

That gave Issei enough courage to lick his dry lips and let the words spill out. "What the fuck just happened?" Just the memory of the last ten minutes was enough to make his palms break out in cold sweat. "Who are you? Was that _magic_? Was Amano-san a tengu or something? Why was she trying to _kill_ me?"

Issei couldn't help it when his voice rose from a timid whisper to a high-pitched squeal of absolute fear. He was just a normal kid for heaven's sake! An hour ago the only thing he was thinking about was how much he hated playing soccer while hoping he might find a girlfriend, and now he'd nearly been slaughtered by some girl out of a fairy tale before getting his ass saved by some sorcerer guy.

Sighing lowly, the young man settled a hand on one navy-blue clad hip and considered. Despite Issei's panicked outburst, he actually seemed more patient than he was before, perhaps deciding that Issei really was ignorant rather than just some dumb coward. "It was magic of a kind. That woman wasn't a tengu. She was a Fallen Angel – the kind you hear about from the Westerners. And she was trying to kill you because the God of the Christians hid a powerful magical item in your soul."

"In my _soul_?" Issei groped vaguely at his chest, like he could just pull whatever it was out like a pocket hankie. The idea was even more ridiculous than the rest of the fantastical information he'd just gotten. At least he'd half expected to have it confirmed that _magic was fucking real_. The idea that he was some kind of destined chosen was just… he couldn't believe it.

While Issei tried to deal with the fact that his entire world had just been twisted upside down, his savior turned and strode away, his boots sure and strong as they prowled over the pavement.

"Wait! You didn't tell me who you are!"

A nonchalant wave without even bothering to look back was the response he got.

* * *

"Why the fuck am I doing this shit? I'm not the Captain!"

"Because Naruto Gremory is a good team player and a real go-getter." Sasuke drawled from his spot leaning against the gym storage room door. The Uchiha half-heartedly thumbed through a round of tetris on his cell phone while Naruto fucking slaved. "Look at that boy go, he's the MVP and he still pitches in after the game."

"Go shove your thumb up your ass you poncy prick."

"If you want to make requests of the crowd you should be doing something when you're playing then."

"I scored every point!"

"You could have scored more."

"Son of a bitch."

No, Naruto wasn't bitter at all about Sasuke's refusal to help. Why would he be? He was just that much of a generous soul.

Really.

In the end Naruto decided he didn't give that much of a damn, settling for just leaving the nets rolled up in the corner while he left the soccer ball perched between them. At least he didn't have to actually take the frames in too.

"Let's get out of here."

Sasuke exhaled in relief, dropping his phone in his pocket and leading the way out of the dark and dusty storage room. Without thinking too deeply about it, Naruto followed.

The faint sound of crickets chirping marked the warm summer evening, and Naruto found himself instinctively relaxing at the nostalgic chorus. It reminded him of his time on Team Seven in Konoha, back when he really had been a child and innocent, drilling a bittersweet little pain in his heart.

"Have you noticed anything else… unusual?"

It was a concession to the real concern in Naruto's voice that made Sasuke answered truthfully rather than give a sarcastic grunt in reply. "Akeno watched her for a few days before getting bored with the whole thing, but nothing dramatic happened to interest her beyond that. And I haven't seen any more than you have."

Naruto wasn't sure if he should consider that good news or bad news. On the one hand, Valerie hadn't done anything that would suggest she was going off the rails or about to have a psychological breakdown. One the other hand, Naruto wasn't blind. His Bishop had been growing increasingly tired and silent as the weeks went on.

Without some obvious proof to wave in her face that something was wrong, Naruto's attempts to talk to her only had her telling him over and over that nothing was wrong.

"It's obviously the Longinus. Just order her to stop using it."

"I thought about it." Naruto muttered, a deep frown pulling at his lips. "But I didn't think that would be fair." While he was getting more worried about Valerie as the weeks went on, he wasn't enough of a hypocrite to tell her to stop taking contracts and stop training. He'd never let anyone prevent him from trying to get stronger, and the thought of putting that pressure on her didn't seem right to him.

As much as it irritated him, all Naruto could do was stand back and wait. When she fell he'd catch her, but before then he couldn't just put a leash on her just to sooth his own conscience. Maybe he'd abandoned Jiraiya-sensei's teachings, but he hadn't abandoned basic decency and a sense of fair play. He'd give her the chance to figure things out for herself.

Giving an explosive huff, Naruto shook his head. That was enough for the moping today, he figured. He couldn't do anything about it right now so there was no point in complaining about it. "So why are you actually here? I know you didn't come to watch the game."

"Rias left a few things in the clubroom and I needed some air."

Naruto smirked snidely, readjusting his gym bag as he jogged ahead of Sasuke so he could walk backwards and get a front row seat to the entire show. "Oh? Sounds to me like she's got your balls in her purse, making you run errands while she gets to chill at home."

The Sharingan flickered very briefly in Sasuke's gaze, just long enough to signify promised violence before fading back to coal black. Devil eyes weren't exactly kosher among mortals unaware of the supernatural. "I _offered_ , because I wanted the walk anyway and it was no skin off my back. Maybe if you understood the concept of give and take you wouldn't still be failing to balance your romantic relationships."

Involuntarily, Naruto winced. "Fuck man, that was a low blow." Then his expression turned wicked. "Besides, at least I can say I have romantic _relationships_ , as in more than one. You've only got the one and you still can't get it in. That makes you the dud and me the stud."

Sasuke just cocked a sardonic eyebrow. "From here it looks to me like you've got two eager blondes and you still haven't gotten anywhere. Rias needs gentle handling a lot of the time, what's your excuse? Performance issues? All the salt from that ramen stacking up?"

"Listen here motherfucker-"

"Shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut up, _you_ shut up!"

"Naruto." Sasuke said very clearly and very coldly, crimson flooding back into his eyes without any regard for who might see it. " _Shut up_." There wasn't any teasing or irritation in Sasuke's suddenly serious demeanor, and that more than anything made Naruto pipe down.

As soon as did it hit him. The overpowering metallic reek of blood. "Ah." He hummed, his pupils contracting as he turned to look up the walkway leading to the old dormitory housing the Occult Research Club. A human wouldn't have noticed anything with their dulled senses, but the two devils could smell the gore from more than a hundred meters away.

There was so much of it that Naruto grimly suspected someone had either been murdered in the clubhouse or had been wounded elsewhere before making their way inside to die. "Let's go."

Dropping his gym back in the bushes, Naruto rushed up the sidewalk with Sasuke hot on his heels. But once they reached the front doors they slowed to a cautious creep.

Naruto reached out and pushed, the double doors swinging inward with barely any pressure. The lock was broken. He gave Sasuke a significant look at that, stepping inside on silent feet and with shallow breaths.

Which was probably ideal, since even that was enough to make him want to throw up. A full inhale might even have him spewing chunks everywhere.

Tiptoeing their way up the stairwell, Naruto grimaced at the thick puddle of blood he stepped in, the ruby liquid staining his white trainers and soaking into his socks. Every step after that had sticky cold syrup slurping up between his toes.

"Get ready." He whispered, bringing his hand up in a ready position that would let him call on a Rasengan at any moment's notice. Behind him he knew Sasuke was tense and ready to launch a Chidori at the first sign of hostility.

As prepared as he could be, Naruto slipped into the main clubroom before stopping halfway through the door in shock. "Fuck." He cursed loudly, dropping all thoughts of combat and lunging across the room to hover over a bundle of blood and black feathers. "What the hell happened to you?"

"What the fuck do you think?" Raynare growled, coughing out a hefty mouthful of red-tinged phlegm. She cracked open one bloodshot purple eye to give him a hateful stare before shuddering and falling back into a stupor.

She didn't seem to have any energy for arguing, so Naruto didn't press her, stripping off his t-shirt before kneeling down to press the balled-up cloth against the gaping wounds that lined her stomach. It didn't do much to staunch the flow of precious vitality, but it was better than nothing.

Finding a dying fallen angel on the floor of the clubhouse was pretty high on the list of things he wouldn't have expected to see today, but if she'd been attacked he supposed she didn't have anywhere else to go. Gehenna and Mictlan were allies, and she could hardly limp her way home if someone was hunting her.

"Idiot." Sasuke murmured, reappearing with a thick glass bottle in his hand that Naruto recognized on sight as being from Ravel's phoenix tear stash.

His Bishop's paranoia and insistence on hiding at least one bottle in almost every room had been annoying as fuck, but he definitely saw the benefits now.

"Hold her head up."

Ignoring the crimson sludge practically coating his palms, Naruto slid one hand under Raynare's back and propped up the unconscious woman so she was mostly upright. "Do it."

Sasuke sneered but didn't argue, unscrewing the cap before dumping the precious regenerative elixir all over Raynare's abdomen. Steam rose as wounds closed, and her breathing seemed easier, but she was still deathly pale.

The tears could heal injuries but not regenerate organs. Which mean she might still die if she'd be gouged too deeply.

"Wrap her in some blankets." Sasuke ordered, jumping back to his feet before rummaging back around in Rias' desk. "We're going to have to teleport her right to the house and get Valerie to heal her. We don't want to deal with the Grigori asking about why their agent died in our office."

Glaring at the Uchiha, Naruto laid her gently back down before doing as he said. He wasn't doing it for Sasuke, but that school uniform had seen better days and whoever had fucked up Raynare had done a number on her clothes too. "Let's just get outta here."

* * *

The soft pink rays of the dawn pierced through the shadow of the night, but to Issei it made little difference. He'd spent the entire evening after getting home lying in his bed and staring at the ceiling. His eyes felt swollen and dry, but sleep was just as far out of reach by the time morning came as it had been when he'd sprawled over the mattress.

How could he sleep when everything had changed?

Issei scrubbed at his face, wondering when he'd slipped from jumping at every creak that rattled through the house to just lounging fully numb. If Amano came back to kill him there was nothing he could do to stop her beyond hoping that the spear-wielding magician showed up again to save him, so why bother being prepared to run?

At this point he couldn't really say his life belonged to him.

Eventually his alarm clock shattered the silence with its demand that he wake up and get ready for the day, but Issei shut it off with a heavy slap. What was the point of school? What was the point of anything when some monster could just jump out of the shadows and kill him because some god had decided to curse him the day he was born? He'd only lived so long out of sheer dumb luck.

Well, Issei decided as he sluggishly got to his feet. If he was doomed to die at least he could do his parents the favour of not being in the house when they came for him. There was no reason they needed to get caught up in the shitstorm his life had turned into.

Trudging through his morning routine like a zombie, Issei showered and crammed down a few slices of half-buttered toast before heading out. His parents were probably worried at his lack of energy, but Issei couldn't even _begin_ to bury the horrors buzzing in the base of his skull.

A warm breeze blew up the street towards him, carrying the sweet scent of some housewife's apple pies, and Issei felt his eyes water. Fuck! He didn't want to die! Why did this have to happen to him?

Issei clenched his jaw so tightly it was a wonder his teeth didn't crack. He glared at everyone he came across he made his way to the Academy. It was a far cry from his usual friendly self, but he couldn't help it. Amano had proven he couldn't trust anyone. The salaryman standing outside the local coffeeshop? Maybe he was a kitsune. The little girl sitting on the park swingset? Could be born to a family of magicians.

The world was much bigger and much scarier than most people thought it was. They had no damn clue that the power of science and human rationalism had _nothing_ on forgotten spirits and dying gods. They had no idea that there really were monsters under their beds, waiting for a chance to strike out and kill.

"Yo, Issei!"

Squinting at Matsuda as his friend from middle school jogged up to meet him, Issei wondered. He wondered if the other boy's love for porn was normal for a teenaged boy or if Matsuda was secretly one of those Western incubus demons. He wondered if that shaved head was natural or if Matsuda was a balding monkey youkai in disguise.

Did he really know the other boy at all? Or was there some monstrosity lurking underneath that human face? Issei shivered, hunching his shoulders and nodding back unenthusiastically. "Hey."

"So listen." Matsuda lowered his voice conspiratorially, keeping one eye out for any eavesdropping yearmates as they made their way to their classroom. "I was poking around on the net and I managed to get my hands on a few vids. Top tier stuff, _uncensored_. Whadda say we get a hold of Motohama and head back to my place to watch them? My parents are out of town for the rest of the week."

Normally the prospect of being able to watch illegal uncensored bootlegs of Japanese AV actresses sold to Western audiences would get Issei's interest. Being able to slither off to one of his friends' houses for the evening for a porn and pizza marathon without having to worry about anyone's parents popping in would have him bouncing off the walls in excitement.

But Issei couldn't get his mind away from last night. Every time he closed his eyes he was back _there_ , with images violence and blood shining behind his eyelids while the remembered taste of gunpower simmered on the back of his tongue. Ass and tits and panties all seemed like nothing next to magic and death and terror, and perving around like it was just anyone other day was simply impossible.

His life was different. _He_ was different, and Issei knew that there was no going back into the comfort of blissful ignorance from here. Nothing would ever be the same again, even if he never saw another supernatural creature for the rest of his life.

Now Issei _knew_ that there was something behind the curtain.

The brunette smiled weakly at his old friend, his chocolate brown gaze glazed and dull as he tried not to wonder which one of the classmates filtering into the room wasn't human. "Nah, not tonight. I need to get caught up on my studying and Kaa-san has been really putting the whip to me lately. Sorry."

Matsuda looked baffled. "Are you sure, man?"

"Yeah." Issei sighed, acid burning in the back of his throat as he pretended nothing at all was wrong. "I'm sure. It is what it is. Can't do anything about it."

* * *

Rias scowled down at the stain left behind by Raynare's blood on her clubroom floor. She and her peerage had quietly mopped up the mess without alerting the students or the staff of the academy, but it had still sat long enough to set in.

At least the hardwood was dark. According to a quick internet search once she gave it a week or two to oxidize the crimson tint would be darken into a shade much less noticeable that wouldn't ruin the wood. Having to replace the floor would lead to too many questions from the school and the cat would be out of the bag.

"I still don't know why you don't want to call Gramps in. Technically he's the administrator around here, so you'd think a think a student almost getting shanked on campus would be right up his alley."

Looking away from the squiggly stain that had seeped in right beside her desk, Rias settled a considering state on her sullen nephew. She was pretty sure she'd already _told_ him why they couldn't call in the clan that morning, but considering how drawn out and exhausted he seemed she could probably cut him some slack. They might not always get along but that didn't mean she had to be a shrew about it.

"Because while Raynare came here for sanctuary, as she should considering the Grigori are allies of Gehenna, we don't have enough information to make that call. We don't know who attacked her, or if she attacked someone else. We don't know if the Grigori have any more assets in Kuoh or if she is the only one. We don't even know if she'll live or die. Until she wakes up we won't have any answers. And until we get those answers, it's better to handle this informally."

"Right, right." Naruto muttered, dropping the mop back in the bucket before knuckling at one bloodshot eye. "Plausible deniability. As long as the clan doesn't know, anything we do can be passed off as ignorant kids being kids. But if they do then they're accountable if Raynare fucked with the wrong faction. Because of giving support and whatever."

Rias hummed a low agreement in the back of her throat, hefting the bucket up so she could dump the dirty water out in the private clubhouse bathroom. It left a pinkish ring in the bottom of the tub that she had to spend a few minutes spraying at with the detachable shower head.

Coming up behind the Ruin Princess with a smut jug of bleach he'd probably pilfered from one of the janitor closets, Naruto poured the industrial cleaner in the tub to make sure the porcelain was left pristine and spotless. "Listen, I'm gonna head out. Me and Sasuke are gonna run the streets for a bit and see if we can pick anything up. I'll let Akeno know she doesn't have to keep a watch out when I go by."

"Good luck." Rias acknowledged, twisting off the water and drying her hands. "Just try not to stay out too late and keep in contact. Otherwise we'll be wondering if you two have afoul of whatever it was that savaged Raynare."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure thing, _mom_. See ya later." Then her nephew was gone, leaving Rias alone with her thoughts and her worries.

Contrary to the cool dispassion she'd displayed when answering Naruto's question, Rias was much more concerned than she let on. It wasn't necessarily that there was someone out there that _could_ hurt or kill Raynare – Rias could do that herself without too much trouble. Rather, it was the thought that there was someone out there that _would_.

Even if Raynare was arrogant and personally unpleasant, she was still what amounted to a de facto ambassador of the Grigori. An assault on her could be taken as an assault on the entire fallen angel government. Someone that was willing to do that had to be ignorant, insane, or absurdly powerful.

Obliviousness and madness were easy enough to deal with, since it would just mean some idiot had shot first without thinking about who he was shooting. Someone like that was easy enough to put down, if a bit of an inconvenience to sniff out.

Someone who was so powerful they didn't have to be afraid of tangling with the Grigori though… that was someone that could kill Rias and her makeshift family without breaking a sweat.

Running to her father without trying to solve the issue on her own would look weak and get the clan involved, but the risk of violence would probably be reduced.

Unless it had been more than one person that had gone after Raynare. An organized group, or even a formal faction.

The thought of Kuoh descending into a battleground for a conflict between the Grigori and the Edo Youkai made her guts turn to ice. Something like that might escalate to a full on war between the Shinto pantheon and the Biblical one.

"I hope you're not lurking here waiting for me to start looking over more paperwork. Because I'll tell you right now Buchou, I am _so_ done for the day."

Curving her mouth into her best effort at a disaffected smile, Rias shook her head at her approaching Queen. "Nothing like that, I just thought I would ask if there was anything here you wanted to take home before we lock up."

Akeno pursed her lips, letting her gaze rove across the bookshelves and the papers scattered over Rias' desk. The violet light in her eyes went flat as she studied the mismatched bloodstains that marked the floor of the clubroom from one side to the other. "No, I can't think of anything I'd want to bring. Let's just go before it gets too much darker."

Stuffing a few books in her school bag, Rias very carefully didn't comment on the icy neutrality in Akeno's voice or the fact that a devil's vision was hardly reduced at night. "Alright." She declared instead, slinging her leather messenger bag over one shoulder. "You go first since I have the keys."

Neither one of the young women spoke as they made their way out into the cool evening air, locking each door carefully behind them until they were standing on the winding path that led back down to the rest of the academy grounds.

Long minutes passed as they walked together in silence, Rias turning over the situation in her mind in an attempt to find the best way to approach it. Akeno was a very direct girl in general, but she could be touchy about her childhood and certain other personal _issues_. "Would you like to stop somewhere for ice cream on the way home?" she offered eventually.

Frowning faintly, Akeno looked over to stare quizzically at the redhead. "Well I wouldn't say _no_ if you wanted to buy one, but why? Didn't you just eat your supper like an hour ago? You can't be that hungry, can you?"

"Ah, well." Rias shrugged, studying the distant horizon. Pink and indigo mingled at the skyline with the dying of the sun. But soon enough the sun would return, reborn and vibrant. It made her wish their lives were that easily renewed. "I thought maybe you'd like something a bit sweet."

The confusion on Akeno's face intensified for a heartbeat, before it was swept away by realization. Black venom and a cold burning anger twisted the halfbreed's expression into a rictus of remembered betrayal. "So you thought I needed a bit of comfort food? Like I was a sad little girl all upset at seeing someone I cared about get hurt."

"I didn't-"

"Let me tell you something Rias. I don't _care_ if we share blood and it was all over your floor _._ That man gave up his rights to be my father a long time ago, and that woman has _never_ been my sister."

Akeno clenched a fist so tightly the tips of her nails bit into the soft flesh of her palm. "I'll defend her, because that's part of the alliance between Gehenna and the Grigori and its bigger than me. But I'm not going to play happy fucking families with her."


	6. Chapter 6

Dark heavy bags hung under her eyes, Raynare's head was still spinning from the combination of fatigue and anemia, but she was _alive_. She'd come face to face with the pointed end of the Spear of Destiny and survived, which wasn't something many other people could claim.

Maybe she'd brag about it when she made it back to Mictlan and bask in Mittelt's impotent envy.

"Here."

Turning away from the window, Raynare faced Rias Gremory's little nekomata Rook with an expectant smirk. "About time." She drawled thanklessly, taking the dark blue hooded sweatshirt the girl offered. A red and white fan was emblazoned on the back, but she refused to give much thought to the fashion choices of a bunch of devil brats. Clothes were clothes at this point.

Unfortunately, her brazen nudity didn't seem to embarrass Toujou as she accepted a pair of baggy sweatpants from the nekomata. How sad - Raynare could have used the laugh. Instead those amber orbs just watched passionlessly as Raynare wriggled into the hoodie.

If she wanted to seduce the girl she'd actually be a bit offended at the lack of interest in her perfectly shaped breasts or the smooth pale skin of her stomach. "I suppose they want me _comfortable_ before the interrogation?"

The sarcasm thickening her tones didn't make Koneko balk, and with a click of her tongue Raynare just gave it up. There was no fun in teasing someone that had too much water in their veins to respond. It was only worth it when she could see the way their rage flickered across their nerves. Anything less was simply too tepid to enjoy.

Slinging the black baggy pants on in a way that gave little peeks at her navel when she stretched, Raynare tied off the waistband before heaving an irritated sigh. "Out of the way then." And without waiting for Koneko to move, Raynare pushed on past.

A violet stare in the same shade are her own greeted her once Raynare made it down to the first floor.

Akeno leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and a blank mien. Her half-sister was determined not to acknowledge their relation in any meaningful way, and Raynare was perfectly content to let her.

Without pausing to even recognize Akeno's presence, Raynare kept moving until she was standing before the two Gremory brats, one hand on her hip while the other hung loose. "I'm told the two of you had your hands in cleaning up the scene and taking me back here. The Grigori won't forget that." It was as blandly polite as Raynare could manage.

Then she went to flee out the front door.

"Wait, what?" Naruto shouted, rushing ahead to bar Raynare's way with an utterly baffled expression on his face. "That's it? You need to tell us what's going on! We found you bleeding to death in our clubhouse! You owe us that much, don't you think?"

Maybe if Raynare was a kinder person in general, or maybe if she was at the least better disposed to devils, she'd give a damn about the kid's curiosity. Sure, he'd helped her out of a tight spot and she wouldn't forget that if there came a time to return the favour, but that didn't entitle him to start sticking his brash nose in her business.

Looking down at the indignant redhead with a glacial glare, Raynare denied him. "The business of the Grigori is the business of the Grigori, not that of Gehenna or the Gremory clan." Shrouding herself in the façade of official sanction seemed like the easiest way to deflect questions.

Nevermind that she hadn't actually waited for orders from her superiors before deciding to take out Hyoudou. The Red Dragon Emperor was just too dangerous to be left alive, especially with the way he'd seemed to be drifting into the Gremory heir's orbit. If she'd reported back with a success she knew that Azazel and Shemhazai would pardon going outside mission parameters. Even her useless so-called father would support her.

But now that Hyoudou was still alive and there seemed to be some new player taking an interest in him, a player powerful enough to command True Longinus no less; things might start going off the rails. Questions were going to be asked by the Gremory clan if the children decided to run to their higher ups, and in the end she might be dismissed as having failed her mission.

Which was unacceptable. The mere _idea_ of failing in Azazel's eyes was enough to turn her blood to ice. The _reality_ of it would be unbearable.

So she needed to get out from under the eyes of the devils. Raynare had to regroup and move up some alternative plans. Hyoudou was still alive but so was she, and unlike her the human boy was nowhere near trained in his ability to use his powers. As long as she wasn't found out by that spearman again she could still clean this mess up.

"No." Raynare eventually murmured, keeping her voice low and nonconfrontational. "I can tell you that I wasn't in conflict with another pantheon. I can tell you that Gehenna will be treated as an ignorant bystander. I can tell you no laws were broken and that this won't become a clusterfuck." Or at least she hoped, since that spear throwing bastard had never claimed to be anyone's emissary.

Drawing that tattered remains of her dignity up around her like a cloak, Raynare straightened her spine and lifted her chin. "But I can't spill the beans for you. What my superiors have asked me to do isn't something I can tell outsiders about. This conflict might prove that I'm a weakling, but I won't let it prove that I'm a traitor."

The formal speech and humble words galled Raynare like swallowing a chicken bone. She wanted to cough and spit and scoff at the naïve kids that were trying to play hero without even knowing all the facts.

In fact, if she were honest Raynare would probably come across as a villain to the innocent little kids that the Gremory clan had sent to Kuoh.

But pretending to be a sober patriot made the Gremory brats back off and let her pass through, so with a final austere nod to Naruto she escaped out into the dark streets.

* * *

"So that's it then." Yuuto declared crabbily, folding his arms and staring at the front door with a slightly peeved expression. While he'd gotten used to it in Gehenna, Yuuto still didn't enjoy being ignored. Raynare's eyes had passed over him without recognition, the fallen angel dismissing him as practically equal to another piece of furniture.

Even when she was only alive because of their generosity she was still arrogant.

Thinning his lips in irritation, Naruto turned away from the door and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I guess so." The Gremory heir wasn't any happier at being brushed off, but they all knew that there wasn't much else they could do.

Rias tapped her chin in thought, shifting her gaze from the sullen blond to the sulking redhead. "I wonder if at this point we should speak to Father or Sirzechs about this. Informally of course, but there might be some underlying currents we need to be aware of. However you approach it this entire series of events is certainly irregular."

"Yeah that should be no problem." Naruto grinned at the other two. "We can keep it all on the downlow if you're fine with waiting until gramps and I go out for dinner in a few weeks. Sooner or later he'll call me up for another evening of fancy wine and old man wisdom like he always does, so it won't look odd." His earlier annoyance was washed away in an instant now that Naruto had something _concrete_ to do.

Yuuto watched the two redheads through half-lidded blue-grey eyes, leaning back against the wall like a good servant would. In any other household he'd exist to be seen and not heard, but here he was comfortable enough to offer his own thoughts. "Even if we can't do anything openly for a few weeks, that doesn't mean we have to do nothing at all. Sasuke is still out wandering and I'm sure we can turn our next few contractors into spies."

"Makes sense." Naruto shrugged, offering his support to the suggestion without hesitation. "If you've got enough eyes and ears out there you'll eventually find out something worthwhile. It's not like we can just follow her around. _That_ could lead to some pretty uncomfortable questions, both from Raynare and from any of the big guns she tattles to."

Unlike Naruto, Rias was reluctant to agree; and Yuuto knew it was her overprotective nature at work. Naruto might be the more reckless of the two Gremory devils, but he didn't coddle them either. Sending out the members of her peerage to walk the beat when there was an unknown third party in the town would probably have her biting her nails with apprehension.

"Fine." Rias eventually conceded, massaging her tense temples with pale fingers. "I will have to sit down with Ravel and draw up a few plans and contingencies, but fine. We'll do it your way." Then she turned and stalked off, muttering mutinously under her breath.

Once the wound-up Ruin Princess vanished from sight, Naruto let out a gusty sigh and grinned at Yuuto, his smile a little too sharp and a little too wide. There was a certain hunger in that smirk that the blond Knight identified with. A thirst to take up his sword and answer the call of combat.

How bad could it be anyway? Raynare might have gotten thrashed, but the fallen angel was weaker than almost every member of both peerages. Only Valerie and Gasper would struggle against her. And whoever had beaten her hadn't been strong enough to land the final blow.

Well, easy victory or not, Yuuto wanted to get out in the world and _do something_ for once. Galilei wasn't growing any younger and Yuuto refused to let old age steal his revenge just because Rias wanted to be ridiculously cautious.

* * *

By the time August barreled into town with choking heat and blazing sunny days, Naruto was entirely fed up with the whole damn charade.

In the end 'Amano Yuuma' never returned to school, and beyond a few sightings it seemed like Raynare had entirely vanished into the shadows. Their attempts to drum up more information from the rumor mill were worthless. Even his under the table questions to his grandfather during their clan business chats only got him a few warnings to be careful and keep his nose clean.

What a fucking waste of a whole month. The only bright side in the entire shitshow was that a few weeks back Valerie seemed to snap out of her funk for some reason and had pretty quickly bounced back from the edge of exhaustion. Naruto tried to feel properly grateful for it, but the atmosphere at the house had grown too tense for such simple joys.

The sheer lack of even a scrap of information from any of their sources hadn't calmed their makeshift home. Instead it had sent them all spiraling into anxiety as it became clear that whoever fucked Raynare up was very good at covering their tracks. Too good to be some two-bit chump they could spank around for a laugh.

The only other explanation was that Raynare had gotten jumped by someone who decided to immediately run out of town, but that didn't really fit with Raynare's sudden disappearing act. Her avoidance of the school had directed their suspicions there, but after a subtle interrogation of every known supernatural attending the academy they'd just turned up a dead end.

Maybe it was a bit pointlessly obsessive for them to get so worked up over someone smacking around a grunt from the Grigori, but none of them could help it. Life had made them all paranoid, and for good reason. The man that forgot to guard his back was the man that ended up face down in a ditch somewhere with his throat slit. A reality that Naruto had personal experience with.

Fuck.

Exhaling slowly, Naruto let the shower spray run down the tense muscles of his back as he rested his forehead against the cool tiles of the shower stall. He was dreading when the summer break ended and he actually had to go back to classes at the end of the month. Not having to deal with his naïve classmates actually helped with the stress.

But soon enough it would back into the daily grind of pretending to be just another human, cramming to complete his assignments and play a sport he didn't even like.

"Fuck me."

"That's exactly what I'm here to do."

Whirling around at the sudden intrusion with his heart leaping into his throat, Naruto was fully prepared to rip a new asshole into whoever thought it was a great idea to interrupt his 'me' time. Or at least that had been his plan, until his eyes registered just exactly what he was looking at and his brain short-circuited.

Valerie stood under the raining spray of the shower head, her crimson eyes glowing with soft amusement and a certain restless energy. The water had soaked into her straw-yellow mane, plastering her strands to her skin and darkening them to a heavy goldenrod hue. She wouldn't look at all out of place gardening outside during a spring shower.

Except for being completely and totally nude, streams of moisture running down her milky flesh. It trailed slick and wet, dripping down her arms and even through the crevice of her shapely breasts, tracing a single line over her taut stomach to soak the gleaming curls above her sex.

Naruto realized two things in that moment.

One, that he was as hard as steel, the meat of his prick throbbing so fiercely with arousal that it nearly hurt.

Second, that Valerie was _naked in his shower with him_.

"What are you _doing_?" he breathed, his pupils blown wide as he scrambled back that scant few inches so his back was pressed up against the wall.

Dimly, Naruto wondered if he should have expected something like this. He'd always gone pretty slow with both his Bishops, but he did know that they weren't entirely satisfied with that pace. More than once they'd gone on the offence to push the stakes up another notch.

Valerie narrowed her eyes at Naruto's retreat, stepping closer and closer until her breath fanned against his face and the hardened tips of her nipples were just brushing up against his chest. "What I should have done a long time ago."

A single hand came up to tease over the muscles of Naruto's stomach, the points of Valerie's nails just barely scraping over his skin in a way that had him sucking in a desperate breath while his rod twitched in desperate yearning.

This was _wrong_ , Naruto decided. He shouldn't being letting himself get backed into a corner by an overeager and too-horny dhampir. When he'd accepted Valerie's affection he'd promised himself that he'd treat her right. That he wouldn't rush things with her and do anything that would leave them with shame and regrets. By rights he should push her away and gently but firmly explain to her why this attempted seduction couldn't go any further.

And then that hand wrapped around his shaft, and all thoughts of what were right and wrong fled Naruto's mind as he groaned. The way she pumped him so cautiously and clumsily revealed her inexperience, but with his mind so addled by lust Naruto's reveled in that too.

"There." Valerie murmured quietly, bracing herself against the wall with one hand so she could lean and and nibble at Naruto's earlobe without losing her rhythm. "That's better, isn't it? Just let me take care of you."

Forcefully Valerie pressed her lips against Naruto's, her tongue sweeping out and diving into his mouth like a hungry predator. She coaxed him into deeper passion, the tangy taste of citrus and the underlying purely Valerie taste demanding the searing heat that flamed in his gut. From the start to the end she sought a hollow dominance, practically demanding that he shatter the last few strings of self-control he had and _take her_.

They broke with a quiet gasp, a small string of saliva still connecting their mouths until Valerie broke it with a wicked grin. "Relax." She whispered, tightening the grip of her fingers around his cock for a final moment before letting go entirely.

Before Naruto could speak, could order her to stop or beg her to keep going, she descended, her lips sucking just hard enough to leave blossoming love bits down his neck and chest. The swollen pink head of his meat dragged with delicious friction up the skin of her stomach, torturously between her breasts before popping against the tip of her chin.

Valerie crouched on her knees, locking up at him with a surprisingly serious gaze. It seemed that all her coquettish illusions fell away, leaving the blonde looking surprisingly vulnerable in comparison to all her earlier hot-blooded confidence. "I love you." She stated with all the honest gravity of someone acknowledging that the sun rose in the east or that death came for all men.

Then she practically threw herself onto his cock, forcing herself to take his rod right to the base with no experience and no recourse, choking with the muscles of her throat spasming at the sudden violent intrusion. The tears that shone in the corners of her eyes made Naruto rush to push her head back, but as he did so he was swamped with guilty pleasure.

The trembling wet pressure of Valerie's abused throat sliding over the sensitive skin of his cock felt so powerfully good that Naruto's knees unwillingly buckled. "Fuck!"

A rough laugh escaped the Bishop's abused mouth, thick tears leaking from her eyes that were instantly washed away by the spray of the shower. "A little slower." She acknowledged, wrapping one slim hand around the base of Naruto's shaft and eagerly tasting the tip with the point of her tongue.

Naruto watched with dark blue eyes as his lover practically worshipped his prick with her mouth, licking and kissing her way down until she met her clenched fist and back up against. Then, once his teased and well-loved dick was twitching happily in her grasp, she opened her mouth and slowly took him in.

As Valerie's plump pink lips worked their way down Naruto's shaft, one hand still braced against the wall while the other dropped free to pinch at a swollen nipple, the redhead realized something. Right then he was a slave to the lewd vacuum of her mouth, unable to do anything but clench his fists and swallow back his moans as she coaxed him to new heights of pleasure.

It wasn't that Naruto had never experienced a blowjob before. In his first life he'd taken advantage of his hero status to roll in the hay with more than a few women. But he could say that without a doubt, even if she was inexperienced, Valerie was giving him the most earnest and most desperate service of his life. Every twitch of her tongue, every vibrating hum, every dive that took him to the back of her throat – Valerie gave more energy and more enthusiasm in each movement than he'd gotten in entire performances from other women.

"How are you so good at this?" Naruto wheezed when she finally pulled away, taking him in one massaging hand while her mouth travelled down to suck gently at the heavy swing of his sac.

"I looked it up." She smirked, trading targets so that his throbbing meat was reintroduced to the hot pressure of her mouth while her hand travelled down to scrap over the sensitive skin of his scrotum with carefully trimmed nails.

Valerie looked up, giving her King an innocent fluttering glance at odd with the perverse stretch of her jaw around his dick, and that was the end for him. Naruto's balls tightened, pulsing with blood and lust, and he barely managed to growl a warning through his clenched teeth.

Not that it seemed to make much of a difference. Valerie just redoubling her efforts, bobbing and sucking him to completing.

With a roar he smothered with the back of his hand, Naruto came. Jet after jet of creamy white seed surged from his rod and flooded the enamored blonde's mouth. The muscles of her throat worked and rolled as Valerie swallowed a hefty load, but some of Naruto's cum still leaked from the corners of her lips.

Valerie pulled back with a final wet plop, slapping the rapidly softening head of Naruto's cock against her water-slick cheek before releasing his oversensitive junk. Then very delicately she scooped up on one finger a clinging string of semen that had dripped down to crown her breasts, staring Naruto right in the eyes as she licked up the salty bounty.

"I knew I should have done this a long time ago."

* * *

Issei bent over the sink in the school bathroom, splashing his face with a handful of cold water and wincing as it stung the bags hanging under his bloodshot eyes. He'd learned to rest easier after months without encountering hide nor hair of the supernatural, but he could never quite go back to the way it used to be.

Ignorance was impossible to reclaim, and being constantly on the lookout for demons or devils that might jump out of the shadows at him was taking its toll. His grades had slipped and only by working his balls off was he able to get them back up without his mother noticing. His libido had dwindled to practically nothing and he stopped going over to his friends' houses for porn night. There were even a smattering of grey strands working their way through his chocolate shaded mane.

In short Issei was a wreck, and while he'd cobbled together enough pieces of himself to function in society it didn't work the way it used to. He was too serious and too sullen for his old friends, and too suspicious to make new ones. His possible friendship with Naruto Gremory had withered to nothing when he realized the other boy could very well be a devil in disguise.

Pursing his lips at his haggard reflection, Issei wiped the water from his face with the back of his sleeve before slinging his back up over his shoulder. Whatever, there was no point moping about it now.

Issei turned away from the mirror, letting one hand drift up to hover over the concealed rosary hanging from his neck as he left the bathroom.

His research into the occult had led him to vague and often contradicting results, but one of the most common things to pop up was the ability of holy artifacts to ward away evil spirits. Maybe wearing a crucifix or stuffing his pockets with ofuda wouldn't do anything for him, but it brought him some peace of mind as he struggled through his school life.

"Excuse me." Issei whispered as he dodged around a trio of freshman, careful not to meet their eyes or do anything that might attract attention. It was better to be uninteresting and wimpy than it was to stand out and get people's notice. A mediocre guy with mediocre grades who played on the soccer team with mediocre skill wasn't remarkable to anyone. "Excuse me."

It was best to keep it that way, because even if he couldn't prevent someone like Amano who was aware of the artifact he supposedly had coming after him he could at least keep his head down and not catch the eye of some passing youkai.

Fleeing out into the evening streets with his head hung low and his hands in his pockets, Issei looked both ways before taking his round route home. It would take him a bit longer to avoid all the back alleys and quiet paths he'd once used to cut down on travel time, but it kept him in the crowd as long as possible.

If his mother knew how much fear ruled him, she'd break down in tears, That knowledge was bitter on the back of his tongue, but it didn't convince him to change his habits. Better to be alive and live in fear than to live fearlessly and be dead by the end of the week.

That was just the way his life had to be, and for that Issei hated them. He hated Amano Yuuma and her cruel smile. He hated all the ghosts and all the demons that went bump in the night feeding on humans for their survival. Issei even, in those darkest moment, hated all the gods that had left humans to be the prey of monsters.

He hated and hated and _hated_ until he could barely see straight.

"Umm, excuse me?"

Issei frowned, peering through the seething crowd of human bodies for the source of that loud cry. Again and again it rang out, sounding more dejected each time until he broke through a pair of particularly ornery salarymen to lay eyes on a young foreign girl.

Glittering emerald orbs surveyed the stomping parade of strangers that moved on by, lit up with a combination of hope and sadness. "Excuse me?" she called again, half-reaching for a tired looking housewife that shrugged her off without a word.

Long golden tresses cascaded out beneath a thin white headwrap, layering over verdant robes that tickled Issei's mind with a faint sense of recognition. A nun, he settled on after reviewing the scattered bits of knowledge he'd scrounged up on the internet. She was a Catholic nun, and a pretty young one at that.

Damning the guilt that surged up in his breast when he thought about just leaving her to figure things out on her own, Issei coughed into his fist and stepped forward. "Hello?" he greeted, smiling weakly when those wide electric green eyes settled on him. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were having some trouble."

For a long moment the foreign blonde just stared. Maybe she was that shocked by the idea that someone would just decide to offer their assistance after spending gods knew how long pleading with strangers she met on the street for help.

Then a brilliant and innocent smile curved her little pink mouth, transforming the nun from an odd little girl to a beautiful young woman. Her radiance even cut to Issei's heart, despite his efforts to ignore all things female in the last few months. "I was! Would you be willing to lend me a moment of your time?"

It took Issei a moment to puzzle through her stilted words, the girl's odd accent throwing him off and making it very clear he was dealing with someone that probably hadn't ever even visited Japan before.

But eventually he gave a sharp nod, his grin becoming more real as he stepped closer. His instinct warned him to be wary but there was just something so pure and gentle about her that he couldn't help but let his guard down a bit. "Sure, that's what I'm here for, Sister."

Clapping her hands with glee, the girl bowed bashfully in a clumsy attempt to ape Japan's customs. "Um, I was trying to get to this address, but I don't know where exactly to go." She handed Issei a thick placard that had numbers and a street number marked out with the bold black ink of a permanent marker.

Issei studied the address for a moment, scratching his head in thought as he scanned back through his memory of Kuoh and the streets he'd once roamed. "If I had to say, I'd guess this is the address for one of those apartment complexes down towards the docks?" He motioned off behind her. "You'll want to head down that road right to the end, and then take a left. You'll probably have to ask for directions again, but you'll be pretty close at that point."

Gazing off in the direction he'd indicated with a look of concentration on her bubbly face, the nun hummed in thought before smiling innocently at him again. "Thank you very much sir." She bowed again, making Issei wince and wave her off.

"Oh, come on, none of that. You're making me feel like an old man." He moaned, making sure to smirk teasingly at her so she knew he was joking. Issei had the feeling if he didn't she'd take him seriously and get even more worked up. "It was nothing, really. I was glad to help."

Issei winked at her, feeling his heart lightened for the first time in weeks just for doing a simple good deed for a stranger. Then he turned away, intent on making his way back home before it got too dark.

After three steps he was pulled to a stop by a steel grip on the sleeve of his uniform jacket.

"Um." The blonde murmured, looking down at the pavement with a high flush on her cheekbones as she bit her lip. Her visible shyness contrasted with the unyielding force of her hand that made Issei stop and listen to her again. "Before you go, could I have your name? I'd like to pray for you and your kindness…"

Issei studied the trembling hand that was wrapped up in his jacket and the eager but nervous shine in the nun's eyes as she met his gaze. Then he smiled, jabbing one thumb in his chest like all the old shounen heroes he read about when he was a kid. "My name's Hyoudou Issei! How about you?"

"Oh! My name is Asia Argento, Issei-san. I hope to see you again someday!"


	7. Chapter 7

The bell signaling the end of the period buzzed, and Valerie immediately dropped her pencil to massage her cramping hand.

That was enough of _that_ , and she didn't care enough about her grades in some human school under a false identity to try and frantically scribble out the last answer before the teacher collected their tests.

Gathering her supplies back up and cramming them in her pencil case, the blonde snapped the lid shut before dropping the little box in her skirt pocket.

A few of her classmates tried to get her attention as Valerie made her way out of the school room, but she brushed them all off without a word. The only people in her class worth any attention were Ravel and Koneko, and neither of them had bothered to look up when she walked by.

Just as well, since Valerie wasn't in a talking mood anyway. She was planning to eat lunch with her King and make the most of the only time she could actually talk to him during the school day. Getting caught up with anyone else would just be a waste of time.

"Aww man, I just _know_ that I flunked."

"Hey, what was your answer for question seven? I remembered the Shimazu clan, but I forgot the other two."

"That was actually alright. Not great, but a lot easier than I thought it was be. "

Valerie let the chatter wash over her as she moved with the crowd, her braided forelocks bouncing with every step. Their words were loud and obnoxious and full of pointless mediocrity, but they were easily ignored. No mortal tone could compare to the ringing voice of Sephiroth Graal.

_(Vanish, oh night!)_

Sighing, Valerie bit the inside of her cheek and let the sweet flavor of her own blood coat her tongue. It brought her senses back to the here and _now_ , tricking her fevered brain and driving out the otherworldly presence of the Grail. It was a poor substitute for a real sustenance of power, but it would cage the restless spirits in her mind for a few minutes.

Over the months she'd learned to somewhat accommodate the consequences of her Sacred Gear, finding a balance that let her sleep at night without waking up screaming. Valerie was nowhere near being able to master the mind-crushing parasite, but she'd become adjusted to its moods and quirks. She was sane enough to stomp down on the voices and impressions that bubbled up from the cracks in reality.

Or perhaps Valerie was just barely insane enough to have gotten used to things no mortal mind was supposed to comprehend.

She quickened her steps, power walking to the end of the corridor and down one floor so she could wait impatiently outside Naruto's classroom. "Come on, come on." He was more sociable with the humans than they deserved, and it made him always a few minutes late getting out of class.

Once he knew what she needed he'd let her drink directly from the thrumming life in his veins, reinforcing the mental chains she was slowly learning to construct around the ancient relic that was bound to her bones.

"Oh hey." Naruto grinned easily as he bounced out into the hallway, his blue gaze lit up with good humor. Contrary to what she'd expected after ambushing him in the shower a few days ago for _stress relief_ , there wasn't a single line of tension in his entire body. "I hope you haven't been waiting out here for too long."

Humming lowly in the back of her throat, Valerie deliberately raked her eyes over the short-sleeved white button-up that didn't conceal the redhead's muscled biceps. "It was only for a few seconds."

Her little inspection didn't go unnoticed, and Naruto's face darkened with a flicker of concealed desire. "I stashed a few lunches up in one of the old offices on the top floor. Figured we could eat on the roof."

"That sounds lovely."

Neither of them had openly confronted the other about the _development_ in their relationship, but they both wordlessly acknowledged the dynamic had changed. How exactly it had changed was still up in the air, but every time they were in the same room together Valerie felt like she was in a kennel with a wild tiger.

Well, if her aggression had woken up the carnivore inside of Naruto, she wasn't going to complain. The mere _thought_ of him throwing her down in his bed and fucking the life out of her made her body throb with arousal. The real thing would be a hundred times more enthralling.

She just had to get there first.

* * *

Rias was sitting at the kitchen table reviewing her latest history assignment when Ravel stomped in.

Grumbling and growling under her breath, the blonde flounced over to the fridge. The air filled with the electric hum of the fridge's motor as Ravel practically tore the plastic door of its hinges, grabbing a box of orange juice before slamming it shut again with a bang.

It was only once she gulped down a mouthful of citrus concentrate that the expression on Ravel's face shifted from threatening murder to threatening mutilation.

"Hello to you too." Rias greeted dryly, looking back at the crisp printed lines for a minute before realizing she'd never be able to focus properly on her essay with the seething Bishop lurking in the corner of the room. "Bad day?"

Ravel sucked mutinously on her little red plastic straw until the loud slurping sounds of an empty juice box echoed through the kitchen. "Bad day?" she released the tube with a quiet pop. "Well, if by bad day you mean I had to stand around watching those two make googly eyes at each other then yes, I had a _bad day_."

If she followed a god, Rias would have prayed for the strength to deal with the headache she just _knew_ was coming. "I see." She murmured, folding her hands on the table and studying the younger girl with a nonjudgement teal stare.

"I mean, I'm not asking for much, right? We decided we'd mind our own business and that's fine, but I just know that blood sucking whore is _laughing_ at me." Ravel crushed the little cardboard box and carelessly threw it at the garbage bin.

It missed, bouncing off to land on the floor, but she made no move to pick up her trash. "Oh, she thinks that she can get a fast one over on me, but I'm smarter than her. Ten times – no, a _hundred_ times smarter than her!"

Rias hummed.

"Like, does she think she can hide it from me? I know she did _something_ , all those smug little smirks and sneaky hugs are a piss-poor disguise!"

"Ah."

"I'm gonna find out, and when I do I'm gonna blow her out of the water. Anything she can do I can do better with both hands tied behind my back!"

If there was one thing Rias had learned over the years of having to act as impromptu therapist to the various members of her peerage, it was that it was always better to just let them get all the rage out. So instead of interrupting she just sat quietly and listened to Ravel rant on and on, nodding or shaking her head at all the right times until the blonde wore herself out.

Eventually Ravel petered down, working to get air back into her lungs once she finally ran out of things to say. There was a little flush crowning her cheekbones, which only intensified when she seemed to realize she'd gone and babbled about all her relationship problems to Naruto's _aunt_ of all people. "Well uh, thanks for listening I guess."

Then she scurried out, not replying to Rias' half-hearted call that it hadn't been a problem.

Rias stared at the empty doorway for a few more seconds before slowly exhaling and pressing the heel of her hand to her forehead. "Well _that_ happened, I guess." She groused, turning back down to pour back over her assignment.

But no matter what she did, Rias couldn't quite get herself back in the groove. Her productive mood was totally lost.

"Fine!" Rias barked, slapping a hand on the tabletop and rocketing to her feet. "Just fine then, whatever. I guess this is happening. Rias is running around to clean up everyone's messes once again!" Shaking her hair out of her face, the redhead tossed her half-finished homework in her school bag before stamping her way out of the room.

She deliberately gave herself over to her discontent, determined to get all the negative energy out before she had to confront her complete and utter dunce of a nephew. "To think I lost the succession to a _moron_ like that." Rias groaned, cracking her knuckles threateningly.

Steel hinges creaked as Koneko opened the door to one the rooms coming up on the right-hand side of the hallway.

The nekomata took one glance at Rias' discontent face before practically jumping backward, shutting the door with a small bang.

That more than anything broke through her stream of angry thoughts, sending a spike of vindictive amusement through Rias' gut that made her step back and see the dark humor in the entire situation.

Putting the whip to Naruto and making him get in shape might irritate her, but it would horrify him. Having to have his aunt come and save him from his own romantic blunders was probably reminiscent of still needing his mother to hold his hand while he went to the toilet.

Perhaps she'd even get a recurring joke out of the whole thing once it was all said and done.

Blasting into Naruto's room like a hurricane, Rias smirked when he yelped and fell right off the bed, the wires of his headphones tangling around the knees.

"What the _hell_ Rias?"

She brushed off his indignant shout, snapping her fingers at him like she was beckoning a poorly behaved dog. "Alright, up you get. We're going out for coffee and you're paying for it. That's the _least_ you can do for me after I'm pulling your feet out of the fire once again."

Rolling his eyes at her, Naruto climbed back to his feet before rooting around in the night stand for his wallet. "What is it _this_ time?" he grumbled, slipping a few bills in his pocket before plodding after the slightly shorter devil. "On the rag again? Having another quarter-life crisis? Yuuto left the seat up and you fell in?"

"To the first, if I was, I wouldn't tell you."' Rias shot back, donning a long sleeved green cotton blazer before they stepped out into the early September evening. "As for the second, you're hardly one to talk. And for the third, if such a thing happened I wouldn't be coming to complain to _you_ about it. You can't even manage your own laundry, I could hardly expect you to manage my peerage."

Fanning himself with a grin, Naruto reflexively scanned the street for onlookers as they strolled down to the café three blocks away. "You're pretty spicy today. I'm starting to think number one is definite, and number two is probable. Don't worry though auntie, I still love you."

"Literally neck yourself." Rias deadpanned, moving into the coffee shop and triggering a ring from the overhanging doorbell to announce their arrival. "There is no hope left in this world for someone of your particular disabilities."

Naruto snorted a laugh, shaking his head and stepping up to the counter to order for them while Rias was left to hunt for a table where they could see anyone entering and leaving the café.

It only took a couple of minutes to get everything sorted before they found themselves each holding a steaming cup of coffee and sitting in the corner booth.

A discreet spell muffled their conversation from any eavesdroppers, and the teasing humor slid off Naruto's face like melting ice cream.

"What's going on?" he prodded, his gaze flickering between Rias and the nearly empty expresso bar and back again. "And please don't tell me that gramps is after us again to go schmooze at a few fogey parties. I will cut my own nuts off if I have to deal with another one before the year is over."

Rias glanced down skeptically, like she could see right through the table to settle a scornful glare on her target. "I didn't know you even had those to cut off at this point."

"Oi!"

"Regardless." Rias cut over his protests, taking a small sip of dark bitter coffee before continuing on. "I didn't call you out here to banter. I called you out here to tell you get your head on straight. I'm not going to beat around the bush. You have a harem, now _manage_ it."

An embarrassed blush flooded Naruto's face, and a mortified light briefly glinted in his eyes before he clenched his jaw in denial. "I don't see how it's any of your business what I get up to with Ravel or Valerie." He said slowly. "And I don't think you're one to talk, since you've got your own mess of a love life to worry about."

"Excuse me?" Rias shot back, her tone rising with offended disbelief. "My romantic relationship is hardly a mess. Sasuke and I get along very well, thank you very much. And even we weren't that doesn't make my criticisms of your issues any less valid."

Giving a mean little laugh, Naruto shook his head and made an expression of sarcastic pity, his lips turning down into an exaggerated frown. "It's been years and I'm ninety percent sure you haven't even reached second base. A dead bedroom doesn't make for a healthy couple you know? Not to mention I'm pretty sure you still haven't noticed that Akeno pants after both of you like a dog in heat. Talk about lack of self-awareness."

Rias' first instinct was to deny Naruto's comment about her Queen. Sure, Akeno loved to tease but that wasn't the same thing as carrying a torch of unrequited love. If Akeno really wanted to be involved with either Rias or Sasuke, she wouldn't be playing matchmaker so hard on their behalf.

But that rationale rang a little hollow, because Rias could see Akeno deciding to be self-sacrificing. Her best friend could be petty and selfish when dealing with outsiders, but Akeno could be absurdly generous with those she considered her family.

It was something to ruminate over later, Rias decided. She came to solve Naruto's problems, not unearth her own.

And besides, the Ruin Princess couldn't honestly claim to actually be disturbed at the thought of being a target for Akeno's romantic feelings. A little distressed at having missed something so supposedly obvious, but not disgusted.

Rias shelved those thoughts, not bothering to follow them to whatever conclusion they'd lead her to. She had complications in the present to deal with.

"Regardless." Rias stressed, setting down her coffee so a reflexive angry clench wouldn't crush the cup. "Whatever issues I might or might not have doesn't have a bearing on your issues, which is what we're talking about."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto threw a handful of change on the table. "Well it's not your business. I don't need you playing mother hen for me. So keep your meddling to your own peerage, thanks." Then he moved to stand.

Rias couldn't help the anger that bubbled when he dismissed her, drawing into himself and brushing her off so curtly. Stubborn fool!

"Yes, it is!" she shouted, making Naruto jerk back in surprise. "It became my business when you decided to hamfist your harem! Did you forget that both your prospective wives are co-conspirators in a treasonous plot to overthrow the government? All it takes is one of them to decide that they want to get back at you and we're dead! Are you trying to get us all killed?"

If not for the silencing spell surrounding their table, that outburst probably would have gotten them both kicked out of the cafe.

Naruto's face worked like he couldn't quite decide how to feel, his eyebrows drawing tight as he grimaced. "I see. Well, that's, uh." The wrongfooted Gremory heir sputtered, seemingly caught halfway between shock and rage. " _Fuck_."

But then something strange happened. It was like a switch had been flipped inside Naruto, because all the contorted stress drained away from him in the space of five seconds. He inhaled, pulling his shoulders back as he sat back down, and then exhaled.

The tense lines in Naruto's mien smoothed into approachable affability, and he actually gave Rias a small smile. The sudden transformation from angry young man to austere leader was so swift it was actually kind of creepy.

"I'm not." Naruto responded to her last question in polite measured tones. "I see your point, but I wasn't aware there was that much of an issue. Some jealousy sure, but not anything on the level that it would explode in our faces like that."

Still a bit wrong-footed by her nephew's shift in gears, Rias found herself moderating her own words to be quieter and less abrasive. "It's not that they've been trying to kill each other in the living room quite yet, but the resentment is there and very real. If you don't try to mediate that tension then something is going to explode fairly spectacularly at some point down the line."

"I see." Was the only thing he said for a long while, staring through Rias with a distant glaze that made it pretty clear he was reliving a few moments he'd probably brushed off the first time around.

She gave him the time to ruminate, afraid that pushing more would have Naruto clam back up.

"What do you think I should do then?"

Pierced by the sharp spike of intent in Naruto's gaze, Rias leaned back in her seat before biting her lip in thought. "I think," she began, reflecting on the stream of half-formed solutions that floated in the back of her mine. "That you should acknowledge each of them separately. Make sure they both know you accept all their feelings and return all their feelings, but that for political and cultural reasons you also have feelings for the other woman. After that I suppose you should make some rough schedule in your mind."

Thick incredulity marred Naruto's voice. "A schedule? What am I, a gigolo?"

Rias offered her nephew a thin smirk. "Maybe when you were growing up they told you that one day you'd have a harem, but when I grew up they told me one day I'd _be in one_. Trust me, having a day-to-day general rotation of sorts is not at all odd compared to how some men in Gehenna structure their time with their two dozen concubines."

"Do I even _want_ to know?"

"…No."

* * *

"I've upgraded it, so you should have less problems speaking Japanese to whoever you happen to run into." Throwing the worn little enchanted runestone to Asia, Raynare repressed the urge to roll her eyes at the girl's over-the-top gratitude.

From the way Asia kept bowing and scraping Raynare would almost assume she'd given the girl enormous tits after being consigned to a life of flat-chestedness or something. Which wasn't beyond her abilities to do after preparation admittedly, but if she ever entered the business of female enhancement Raynare could pretty honestly say she was beyond all hope and should immediately commit suicide.

Narrowing her electric violet stare at the blonde nun, Raynare very deliberately swallowed another hefty mouthful of fairy wine before waving the girl away. "Alright, party for one here tonight. You go out and have fun or whatever it is kids do these days."

She only barely held back from mockingly telling Asia not to get pregnant while she was out exploring the town. Not that it would have made a difference, since Argento seemed to think anything rude Raynare said was just her being dramatic and protecting herself from the love of mankind or something equally as ridiculous.

Once the door to the apartment clicked shut, Raynare collapsed back on the couch and eyed her dingy surroundings with pure disdain. To think that she'd been crafted out by a miracle of God himself centuries ago and was now consigned to spending her days hiding within four water stained walls in the slums of some has-been once-industrial Japanese town.

If she were maudlin enough about it, Raynare was sure she could produce some post-modern noir film about the pathetic banality of it all. But if she were that maudlin Raynare supposed she'd be experiencing an existential crisis every other damn weekday.

Taking another sip of the overly sweet purple wine she'd pilfered from Kalawarner's stash four years ago, Raynare flipped open the now well-worn folder she'd gathered all of the collected data on Hyoudou in. The ink was fading slightly after so much handling in so little time, but that didn't matter to Raynare. She was looked _through_ the numbers rather than _at_ them.

It was harder than she thought to admit that the only reason she was breathing was because she was the recipient of misguided sadistic mercy. Raynare had gloated over surviving that one encounter with the wielder of True Longinus, but as time rolled on she's slowly been forced to recognize that the only reason she wasn't dead was that she was allowed to walk away.

Accepting her survival was little more than a whim was hard enough, but as Raynare kept watching Hyoudou she slowly discovered the other watchers who had their eyes on the boy. It hadn't been the mercy of chance that led to Hyoudou not being killed that night, but a carefully calculated response of an unknown party.

That spearman had _plans_. Plans that needed Hyoudou alive. Plans that required that _Raynare_ be kept alive. She was trapped in the web of someone with a gulf of power over her, who expected her to dance on unseen strings and to act out some demented play for his benefit.

Forcing down the constant paranoia long enough to call in a few favours and have Asia shipped into Kuoh was all she could force herself to do. Even then, sometimes Raynare wondered if that had been predicted and accounted for.

It was maddening.

Raynare freely admitted to anyone that asked that she was a coward. There was nothing _wrong_ with cowardice, because it ensured survival and demanded cunning. A coward could go further than any noble paragon that was caged in by the expectations of morality and duty. All the greatest warriors had at some point been cowards that recognized when it was better to retreat and fight another day.

So with the fear of oblivion burning on the back of her tongue, Raynare decided to break the rules and cobble together a road to life and victory out of the pieces of half a dozen barely formed plans.

Once the Solstice came she could force through the ritual and take possession of Twilight Healing. It was technically against policy to kill humans to steal their Sacred Gears, but once she actually had the Sacred Gear in her possession Raynare would have a leg up – both within the Grigori and against the bastard trying to play her.

After that, all she had to do was rush Hyoudou. Her observations had shown that despite her attempt at getting rid of him, Hyoudou hadn't made any effort to actually train himself for combat. He'd barely even acknowledged that magic existed, much less become formidable in wielding it.

The human that possessed the Holy Spear of the Setting Sun was Raynare's only real obstacle. As long as she moved quickly enough she could get rid of Hyoudou before he interfered and retreat with both a victory and a Sacred Gear as proof of success for Azazel.

Simple enough, if high risk in the end. And after living for centuries Raynare was willing to take on that risk. If she didn't prove that she was _more_ than the faceless masses she wouldn't even garner Azazel's notice, much less be able to win a chance at his affection.

Some things were worth more than mere existence.

* * *

Smoke was thick in the air, heavy with the scent of vodka and tobacco, but Sasuke just shrugged it off and waved down another round of drinks from the bartender. "To table seven." He ordered quietly, dropping a thick round of small bills on the counter and striding away without a backwards glance.

Shoving through the crowd of drunk humans, Sasuke brushed off the reek of desperate lust that clouded the dance floor as he made his way to a tiny table in the back corner of the club. It was little more than two chairs parked on opposite sides of a square stool, but for them it was good enough.

"I hope you're ready for the hangover in class tomorrow." The Uchiha snorted, throwing himself into the chair across from Naruto, wincing at the rusty creak it made once it had to bear his weight. "Because if you want to skip I'm not providing your alibi."

"Fuck off." Naruto laughed, lounging back and lifting the sweet mix of rum and coke to his mouth with a roguish wink. "You'll cover my ass if you want me to cover yours, you prick. Or did you want me to run wailing to Rias about you drinking your face off in the middle of the week?"

Sasuke smirked, making a vague motion to the half-full bar surrounding them. "This is on you. All I have to do is say that I came out of concern for your safety and I'm off the hook, while you get a double dose of shit."

Glaring at Sasuke, Naruto clutched his hand around the empty red solo cup that had held his beverage. "You'd do that to me? Your own soon-to-be-sort-of-brother-in-law?" He sounded all kinds of wounded, his sapphire orbs glittering with unshed tears. "Are you really that kind of man, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha snorted into his gin and tonic, throwing back the cocktail before shaking his head at Naruto. All their important conversations seemed to begin like this, with mutual barbs and a few drinks to blunt the emotional edge of it all. His mother would have been horrified.

"From what I hear you'd deserve it this time around. 'A dead bedroom'? That nonsense about Akeno? Really? She wasn't pleased. Neither was I."

"Well in my defense it was a bit of the pot calling the kettle black." Naruto raised his hands in a brief warding gesture, holding off any more commentary as a busty blonde waitress sidled up to the table and brought them another round of drinks. Then he pressed on. "I mean come on, she went right for the throat. You know how vicious she can get. Was I supposed to just sit and take it?"

Sasuke grunted his agreement, letting the point slide. He truly hadn't even been angry about it. He'd just been needled a little, because he _had_ been aware of Akeno's attraction. He was even a little intrigued by it, as any man with a working pulse would be. But he wasn't Naruto, who could justify trying to build a harem, and his fidelity was one of the few scruples Sasuke could still claim to have.

In the end as long as he and Rias ignored it, Akeno's infatuation would fade over time with a minimal amount of embarrassment for all parties. "Well don't bring it up again. Ignorance is bliss."

The corner of Naruto's mouth tugged down, communicating his disapproval of a plan that was essentially lying by omission, but he didn't force the issue. "Anyway, I didn't want to come out and get a hangover for its own sake. I needed your help with something."

A prickle of amusement buzzed in Sasuke's throat at the thought that the famously stubborn and hard-hearted man that had refused to do anything he suggested on principle when they were children was now coming to him for advice. He was even tempted to throw down a few sarcastic comments about it, but it wouldn't be productive, and he had a feeling Naruto wasn't just pissing in an ocean of piss tonight. "Spit it out then, idiot."

Naruto gave Sasuke the middle finger for that particular bout of disrespect. "Asshole. Anyway, when she and I were having our little chit chat today I realized that she wasn't just putting the whip to me to be a bitch. She was, you know, lashing out a bit. Challenging my ability to lead."

"Because she's never had a reason to trust you as her leader. Just my word."

"Right, right." Bracing his elbows on the table, Naruto leaned forward with an intent look in his eyes. "That's why I handled her with kid gloves rather than losing my shit. And then I figured, well what if she's not the only one? We all just kind of agreed to make me the boss, but over here I haven't really done anything to deserve it."

The dots connected in Sasuke's head, and he frowned at the redhead. "So basically, you want me to spy on them, figure out who's not entirely behind you and tell you how you can win them over."

" _Spy_ is a strong word. I was thinking more just like, _informant_ or something."

"That doesn't sound any better." Sasuke deadpanned, taking a sip of his drink to spare himself the need to elaborate. The alcohol simmered on his tongue and down his gullet, but he barely felt it as he turned the possibility over in his mind. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. Ambivalent maybe? There was a phantom of guilt, like he should find playing mole ethically objectionable, but he couldn't quite do it?

Maudlin musings aside, it was rational. It wasn't even that unusual in theory, to have people on a team coming forward to the boss to tell him about issues that might snowball later on. And considering they were all part of what was essentially an undeclared rebellion, it was probably necessary. Naruto had the mantle of leadership, but only because he was the most ideologically committed to revolution.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do."


	8. Chapter 8

Ravel squinted at the clock, studying the vibrant red numerals that blinked a mocking 2:36 and trying to decide if she should crawl off to bed or not. On the one hand, her fluffy pillows were calling her. On the other, she was pretty sure that if she kept her nose to the grindstone she'd finish all her academic assignments for the next two months.

Decisions, decisions.

Nibbling on the worn plastic cap of her pen, Ravel decided she'd be better off to just get her homework out of the way even if it meant she'd be tired in the morning. She hunched over the desk, scribbling down rough but still legible kanji with the impatience of someone that could do better but just didn't care to. As long as the teachers could read the text she'd still get full marks anyway.

"I would say I'm surprised you're still up working away, but I'm not."

Ravel smirked sassily at the interruption, refusing to glance away from her paper as she plodded through inking out a hefty paragraph. "And I'd say that I'm stunned you're not working away, but that would be such a blatant lie that no one would ever believe it."

Then she looked up, and found her mouth running dry.

Naruto leaned against the closed door of Ravel's bedroom, his blue eyes dark with resolve as he studied her. His shoulder-length red mane glistened with beads of moisture left after a steamy shower, and the tan flesh of his shirtless torso burned pink with the memory of wet heat.

"Cat got your tongue?"

Her fiancé's amused barb broke Ravel's stupor, and a crimson flush raced over the ivory skin of her cheekbones. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded, forcing her gaze away from the hard muscles that defined Naruto's stomach. The drab door of her closet wasn't nearly as interesting, but at least it didn't turn her brains to mush.

"Something I should have done a long time ago." Naruto murmured, his voice heavy with secret irony, as if he was quoting someone else. The corner of his lip quirked up, and he let his arms drop down to dangle loosely he approached.

Pretending not to care was one of the hardest things Ravel had ever done. She'd endured abuse at the hands of uncaring family members, isolation from her peers, and years of struggling for acknowledgement. But resisting the seemingly harmless urge to gawp at her fiancé while he approached her all glistening muscles and leonine grace like some Greek god was up getting up there.

Ravel would describe him as a modern Adonis, except she'd seen actual portraits of the man and he was vastly overrated.

"What are you doing?" Ravel hissed, holding up her hands in meagre defense and turning her face away. She thought he'd learned to stop wandering around half-naked months ago after Akeno had started throwing water balloons at him every time he did.

One eye Ravel kept open, guiltily peeking through the cracks between her fingers as Naruto approached. Sure, she was shocked and embarrassed, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to look or that she'd let her guard down.

It was almost a sad metaphor for her life, unable to touch but still craving sight and sense and security over social expectation.

Naruto braced himself on the desk, looming over the blonde with a conflicted twist to his brow. "I needed to talk to you." He stated slowly and clearly, leaning down so that only a scant foot separated him from Ravel's flushed features. "And I realized that it was better to do it now rather than later."

The fresh peppermint of Naruto's breath wafted towards her, his teeth freshly brushed but with a strong cloying undercurrent that made Ravel wrinkle her nose. "You're drunk." She accused, all traces of flustered surprise draining away in favour of exasperated resignation. "Simply amazing. I'm sure our teachers at the academy will be thrilled at the prospect of your hangover."

Absorbing Ravel's last barb patiently, Naruto just watched her. "I'm not that drunk." He eventually pointed out carefully. "I've just been thinking about a couple of things and decided to clear the air rather than let it drag on."

"Fine." Ravel hissed through her teeth, scrunching her eyes shut. While she might be willing to enjoy a bit of eye candy, the lack of space between her and Naruto was a little too overwhelming. "Just get out of my face and say what you need to say."

Warm fingers pinched Ravel's chin, gently but meticulously lifting her head. "You can look you know." Naruto offered lowly, waiting until her eyes fluttered open. "In fact, I'd really encourage you to."

Thinning her lips, Ravel jerked her face away from Naruto's calloused hand. "Stop getting side-tracked." She scolded vaguely, because what else could she say? Even if he told her she could, Ravel didn't feel she had the right to. She'd spent years trying to get the redhead to see her as more than a child, and almost every romantic interaction they'd ever had was one she initiated.

At a certain point Ravel just got tired of forcing her desires on Naruto. It had started to eat into her self-esteem.

"I'm not." There was no teasing in Naruto's tone, only an earnest seriousness that required her attention. Against her will Ravel found herself gazing back into that painfully handsome face, and realizing that the Gremory heir wasn't finding some kind of sadistic amusement out of this. Instead he just looked tired and sad. "I want you to look."

Naruto took her limp shocked hand and pressed it against the firm muscle of his chest, directly over the heart so she could feel the quick and steady thrumming of his pulse beneath the pads of her fingers. As a speech the words were lacking, but as a gesture Naruto managed to convey something that made her eyes burn.

"You damn bastard."

Shadows flickered across her vision as Naruto practically lunged around the desk, trapping her in her chair with the bulk of his hardy frame. "I'm sorry." He declared solemnly, cupping her face between his hands and breaking her into a thousand pieces at the same time.

Softly and tenderly Naruto brushed the glimmering beads of tears from her lashes, the calm serenity of his expression shattering with sympathetic pain. "I'm sorry." He repeated, brushing his lips against her forehead like a benediction, moving down to kiss the tip of her nose. "I won't hurt you anymore." Then he pressed his mouth against hers, sealing his new oath and silently begging for absolution.

Ravel gave it to him, the way she always had and the way she was starting to suspect she always would.

The kiss was gentle and slow until it wasn't, Naruto looping his arms under hers and pulling her to her feet. Ravel gasped into the hot brands of his lips as they swayed, her breasts pushing against his bare tanned skin, and she barely had time to wonder what he was doing before Naruto was dumping her onto her mattress.

Naruto followed her down, nipping at the pale column of her throat and settling possessive hands on her hips. "Relax" he rumbled, his gaze glittering with electric desire as he kissed her again; slipping his questing tongue into her mouth to taste her more deeply.

All Ravel could do was yield to her fumbling instincts. She didn't know how to deal with this Naruto. In her experience Naruto had always been passive, only responding to her romantic overtures on a lower level. The beast of want he'd suddenly become had caught her wrong-footed, sending her heart racing into a furious heady beat.

"Fuck." Ravel breathed as Naruto cupped her breast through the thin pink silk of her nightie, massaging mildly in a way that sent sparks of heat racing over her. She was barely aware of his low chuckle in her ear.

Then Naruto took the collar of her night dress in both hand and tore it right down the middle, leaving her clad only in striped orange panties and shredded fibers before his hungry gaze, making Ravel squeal in shock and move to cover herself. Before she managed to even get halfway there Naruto had pinned both her arms down with his own.

"What are you doing?"

"I told you, what I should have done a long time ago." Naruto cut off the rest of her protests when he lowered his head to her chest, sucking a pebbled pink nipple into his greedy mouth.

Ravel gave a strangled cry, biting her lower lip as Naruto teased first one breast and then the other into almost painful stiffness. He lavished her with attention, practically worshipping her bare body with his mouth and leaving blooming love bites all across her chest.

The mixture of almost-there pain and always-present pleasure twisted together along the skeins of Ravel's nerves, dragging her further and further down into a wild abyss she'd never ventured into before. And as Naruto prodded the point of his tongue into her navel before hooking his thumbs in her panties and pulled, she realized this was the furthest they'd _ever_ gone.

"Wait!"

Naruto paused with her panties halfway down her strangely boneless legs, glancing back up with barely-contained lust. "Trust me." he said like he was asking for her life in the queerly compelling way he sometimes had. And without waiting for Ravel's reply he yanked her underwear down the rest of the way, leaving them hanging fruitlessly from one ankle.

Then Naruto dipped his head back down and feasted. His hot breath ghosted over the hotter flesh between her thighs, and with no hesitation the redhead pressed his mouth to her clean-shaven cunt.

Part of Ravel was crying out in embarrassed shock, because this was too much too soon, but the larger part of her demanded that she brace herself by fisting her hands in the crumpled sheets of her bed. Which was exactly what she did, lungs desperately heaving as she fell back.

Dimly the blonde Bishop was aware of the steel bands that were Naruto's hands spreading her thighs, giving him full access to her most private place. The steadying pressure grounded her fevered mind, which she sorely needed as Naruto slid his tongue between her weeping folds and began to fuck her with his mouth.

"I love the way you taste." Naruto growled as he replaced his tongue with a single finger, slipping it inside her as he turned his attention to Ravel's swollen clit. "And you can be damn sure that this isn't going to be the last time I get to enjoy it."

When Naruto fastened his lips around Ravel's needy bud and began to suck, a broken moan crawled its way out of her throat. If she weren't a devil she'd have prayed to God for mercy and a moment of respite, but since she was all she could do was throw her head back and accept the tight knot of white lightning building between her hips.

It was the low hum that Naruto gave - happy little vibrations dancing across her oversensitive pussy - that finally threw Ravel off the edge she hadn't even been aware was approaching. She came with a scream rising from her lips as her legs clamped shut around her fiance's head, riding out her orgasm all clenched muscles and breathy keening.

When the tide of consuming pleasure receded Ravel relaxed, her body boneless and contented as she gazed down with wide shocked eyes. "Why did you?" she wondered helplessly, not quite able to string her thoughts together.

Naruto swiped a thump across his glistening lips, collecting the sticky remains of Ravel's arousal on the pad of his digit before he very deliberately sucked it clean. "I'm not done with you yet." he warned her with a smirk, lowering his head again with salacious intent.

After that there were no more words, only crushed whimpers.

* * *

'RAVEL grew to level 100!' flashed on the screen, and after a slow blink Konoko shuffled her newest max leveled magikarp into the bottom of her party list along with NARUTO and VALERIE. The trio of useless fish took up half of her loadout, and she was finally ready to challenge the Elite Four.

But that was for another time she decided as she saved and turned off her secondhand Gameboy.

Stretching until the joints of her spine popped, the Rook ignored the glare Sasuke sent her for daring to shove her bare heels into his side. "I'm bored." She brought up instead, relaxing and slipping her cold feet under the hem of Sasuke's sweater. "Amuse me."

"No." Sasuke denied instantly, turning back to study the grimoire on ancient Celtic magic that Rias had dug up for him. Over the years since his recruitment into the redhead's peerage he'd developed a bit of a taste for studying spell creation, refining his fire and lightning magic inch by ruthlessly efficient inch.

Everything from the dismissive turn of his head to the cold hunch of Sasuke's shoulders conveyed his desire to shut her out and focus on his book.

It was a bit pointless though, since they were seated on the same couch in the library and Koneko had no intention of letting him brush her off. Eventually he'd break.

"Amuse me."

"No."

"Amuse me."

"No."

"Amuse me."

"No."

"Your fly is open."

"No – what?" Reflexively Sasuke glanced down, and Koneko took advantage of his moment of distraction to lunge across the cushions and grab at the tattered tome he held loosely.

Koneko managed to pry the book away, clambering over Sasuke's lap and pressing a bony knee into a certain sensitive place that made him curse. Then she sent the grimoire floating away to some forgotten corner of the library with a sparkle of orange sorcery.

Shoving the nekomata off, Sasuke twitched his hand like he was resisting the urge to strangle her. "You just had to do it." He bit out, gingerly getting to his feet and hobbling around the room in an attempt to walk off the pain.

"It's just what you deserve."

Sasuke's face spasmed, like he wasn't quite sure what emotion he wanted to display. Eventually he settled on cool disdain. "You know, I've always wanted to give roof rabbit a taste. What do you say we find Yuuto and give it a try?"

"Barbarian." Koneko shook her head, her mouth twitching with humor. While it was always fun to nettle at Sasuke and see how wound up she could make him, she'd been hoping for something a little more exciting. "Let's go."

Huffing an explosive sigh, Sasuke slipped his hands in his pockets and shuffled after the short Rook. "Where?" he prodded after a few minutes of silently padding through the opulent corridors of the Gremory manse.

Koneko just shrugged. "Who knows?" Either they'd run into one of their friends and get roped into some group project, or they'd wander out into the streets of Kuoh and hopefully find something that caught her eye. Either was fine, since both sounded more interesting than lazing around the dusty library until dinner time.

The back of her head burned with the invisible force of Sasuke's angry gaze, but Koneko brushed it off as she prowled through the halls. At one point Ravel fluttered on by with pink cheeks and a dazed glaze, but Koneko decided _that_ was none of her business. The latest bit of drama leaking out of Naruto's harem wasn't something she wanted to get into.

"I see." Sasuke mused, smirking slightly when Koneko looked back in confusion. The arrogantly pleased look on his face was enough to make Koneko demand he tell her what was going on, but the Uchiha just hummed and hawed and pretended to be oh-so-mysterious.

Giving up with an angry huff, Koneko narrowed a stern amber glare at the dark-haired devil, changing her direction and leading him directly towards the parlour she knew Rias would be relaxing in. If he wanted to play it that way, fine, she knew just how to handle him.

Koneko breezed into the studio, sparing a glance for the retro mecha anime that was blaring on the widescreen TV before leering cattily at the redhead. "Do you still need a hand with that new vampire cosplay? We're bored and don't have anything else to do."

"What? No!"

Very slowly Rias shifted her curious teal regard from her Rook to her Pawn, and then back again. "I might have just the thing."

* * *

October brought dark nights and darker chills, but Issei just grinned and tightened the collar of his jacket around his throat with one lazy hand. Sure, it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was good enough to take the edge off while he stood in the neighborhood park waiting.

Rubbing his palms together to create a bit of warmth, Issei cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed out. The wet warmth of his exhale floated through the cracks in his fingers, white streams of smoke escaping to float away into the ebony night sky.

"What's the hold up?" the brunette wondered, hunching in on himself to try to fight the cold. If Issei had something to distract himself with it wouldn't be terrible, but when all he had to focus on were his own thoughts the cold night found it pretty easy to take a pound of flesh.

"Issei-kun!" A high-pitched happy voice called out to him, and Issei spun on the spot to offer a welcoming smile.

"Hello, Asia." Issei greeted easily, peering through the shattered shadows that the electric street lamps created so that he could watch his new best friend approach. He'd only known the blonde nun for a few months, but every time he spoke to her he found his heart melting a little more. "How's things going?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Asia crossed over a slightly damp sandbox to take a seat on the park bench. "Things have been well for me, what about you?" she still spoke a bit awkwardly, but after a few months in Japan her accent and word choice had improved quite a bit.

"Eh, same old, same old." Issei deflected, eying the rusty swingset and considering its faded red paint. Months ago Yuuma had pulled back the curtain and made it very clear that there really were monsters hiding under his bed. But after so long without any other sign of the supernatural, Issei was slowly starting to relax.

He would never assume it was a dream, but maybe Issei could afford to be a bit less paranoid. In fact, Asia was one of the biggest reasons that he was letting down his guard. Sure, the first few times he'd been suspicious at running into her and thought maybe she'd be the next magical murderer trying to take him out.

But as the weeks rolled on Issei decided that Asia was exactly what was written on the tin. She appeared to be an innocent and shy blonde nun that really was too good for the world, and that was exactly what she was. There was no way that someone could _pretend_ to be so sweet and kind. If she'd intended to try to kill him she had plenty of chances to do it.

So no, Issei felt that Asia really was what she seemed to be.

"That said, I have been trying my hand at a few crafts. Nothing really complex, just building birdhouses and other cheap stuff like that, but it's been fun."

Asia beamed at Issei, folding her hands in her green-clad lap and squinting at him with a cheery emerald stare. "That's wonderful." She chirped, shivering slightly at the chill and hunching her shoulders in. "When I was a little girl my sisters and I used to spend hours and hours knitting scarves. I still do it sometimes. It's not exactly the same, but um…"

Noting how the cold seemed to bite through her jackets, Issei very carefully shuffled closer across the bench so their hips were pressed together. It wasn't exactly lewd, but it still brought a hot blush to his cheeks that he laughed off. "Ah well, it's close enough, you know? At least I think so. Either way you're making something."

Asia's answering giggle was like the chime of church bells, clear and ringing and enough to rouse the soul. It was a pure and clean sound that someone like Issei, with the shadow of supernatural massacre hanging over his head; didn't really deserve to hear. But despite that he drank it in, never quite able to get enough of the blonde's uplifting optimism.

Considering the evil that he knew lurked in the corners of the world, Issei didn't have any business lowering his guard and letting himself be soothed by a soft little foreign nun. But she gave him hope anyway, and that was alright, wasn't it? He was only human in the end.

* * *

Gasper sighed when the printer gave an electric beep, signaling that the ink had run dry. He'd been hoping to get another few days out of it. Oh well. That was just how the cookie crumbled he guessed.

Flipping up the plastic lid, Gasper waited until the little cartridge carrier buzzed into sight. It only took a moment for him to pry out the empty container and replace the black ink with a brand-new cartridge, slapping the lid back down and pressing a flashing button to resume the print job.

The printer hummed back up into operation, spitting out page after page of his completed term paper. With that set back in motion, the blond leaned back against the wall and folded his bony arms across his chest, staring down at the floor silently.

Counting the hardwood floorboards wasn't the most interesting thing in the world to do, but Gasper supposed it was better than trying to talk to Valerie.

The other dhampir was lazing in Gasper's leather office chair, her head thrown back as she gazed numbly at the ceiling, the white column of her throat crowned with a delicate little silver pendant. She was also waiting for her assignments to print out; an empty folder tossed carelessly on the desk in front of her.

Neither of the Bishops made an effort to talk to the other, which was probably for the best. Gasper didn't know what he'd have said to her anyway. For most of his life Valerie had been his only friend, the person he trusted and loved more than anyone else. But once they'd moved to Gehenna and been reborn as servants of the Gremory clan, they'd drifted apart.

To be fair, it hadn't been immediate. Living in a new place with new people had made them huddle together just to be able to feel something familiar. But once they'd gotten comfortable with Naruto and Rias and all the rest, they'd branched off into different circles. Gasper had started looking up to Yuuto and Sasuke as older brother figures, and Valerie had gotten more and more obsessed with Naruto.

Gasper would be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit sour about that. He'd also be lying if he tried to blame it all on Valerie though. She'd stopped reaching out to him, but he'd never tried reaching out to her either. Then the Konoha drama was dropped in their laps, and the break had been almost total. Valerie's fixation on Naruto after that kept growing more intense, and Gasper had thrown himself into the arms of Rias' peerage.

At this point Gasper wasn't sure how to rebuild his relationship with Valerie. He didn't even know if it was possible. Had they just gotten too different over the past couple of years? Did a road back even exist? And if it did, did Gasper even really want to walk that road?

That uncertainty was what really scared him.

Massaging at the slight dark bags of sleeplessness that hung under his eyes with a thumb, Gasper glanced back down at the printer. Three more pages to go and then his printing would be done, and Valerie's would begin.

"How much longer?"

"Oh." Gasper blinked at the sudden question, rubbing at a corner of his pale green hoodie with anxious fingers. "A minute or two I guess. It's printing your stuff now."

Valerie just grunted in acknowledgement, letting the curtain of silence fall back down between them. The disinterest nettled Gasper's pride a little, and against his own instincts he cut through the hush himself.

"How is class going?"

That threw Valerie off balance a touch, and the older blonde turned to stare at him with befuddled crimson eyes. "It's fine. Boring but fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Gasper smiled faintly until Valerie seemed to lose interest and turn her attention back to staring into space. Blood and ashes this was _painful_. They couldn't even have a conversation about school without everything feeling stiff and awkward.

Still, at least Valerie and Ravel had stopped trying to murder each other with their eyes on a daily basis. That had been awkwardness on a whole different level. Even spending most of his time in the basement hadn't kept Gasper out of the line of fire for that particular death match.

The last inked page fluttered into the receiving tray. "It's done."

"Finally."

* * *

The wind was in the west, howling across the north face of the Chugoku Mountains with the frigid promise of winter. The first moon of November hung in the dark sky, sending pale luminous rays down that dappled the bark of the trees silver.

It was pretty in a desolate way, and some nihilistic painter probably would have found something worth recording about it. Maybe one day the mystery artist's work would even find itself in a museum, where some tired middle-aged curator would extoll it as an example of existential loneliness.

Yasaka wouldn't have blamed the humans for looking at it that way. Their senses were limited and closed to the thrumming pulse of the world. They saw only dying trees and dead stone. They weren't able to perceive the golden thread of chakra thrumming its way north and east towards Kyoto like a furious mesh drawn out from the heart of the sun.

Drawing her plain veil closer around her face to better disguise her memorable features, Yasaka turned to the west. If she wasted her time admiring the view she wouldn't be able to complete her inspection and be back in Kyoto by sunrise. She'd left the city in secret without telling anyone but her closest advisors, but the fiction of her presence might not hold up if they suddenly had to cancel hearings for the day.

The blonde kitsune inhaled an icy breath, enjoying the sting of cold clean air, and began to truly _move_. West and ever further west, dancing across the ley line as it wound up and down mountains and across fields until she came at least to the ocean, peering over the ebony glass waves as the ley line continued along the sea floor.

As one of the few youkai in Japan that could claim to have true mastery of all aspects of senjutsu, Yasaka was deadly anywhere in the world. But she was deadliest when fighting above one of the dragon veins, and so it was paramount she know the exact course they moved across the land. Ley lines only shifted slowly year by year, but they _did_ move, and Yasaka hadn't been west of Tottori in a century.

It was good she'd thought to come now, because comparing the present to her memories revealed that the lines had become distorted dramatically past Hiroshima. They were dozens of miles northwards of where they'd once been, and standing just outside Shimonosenki Yasaka could see that the shift was even more dramatic out in the Tsushima Strait.

It wouldn't surprise her if the ley line made land fall in Busan.

Which could become a concern if politics on the mainland were shaken up. The last time this particular line had crossed through Korea had been at the end of the sixteenth century, and that conflict had even spilled over into the human world. If the lines were converging again, there might soon be poison in the well.

Still, perhaps Yasaka could take advantage of that. It was food for thought and potential action twenty or thirty years down the line. She had more than enough time to focus on more immediate problems before she had to worry about bloodying her hands with the Sandalwood King again.

Turning away from the salt spray, Yasaka tracked the moon and guessed she was in the hour of the Ox. Later than she'd hoped, but not worrying so.

The kitsune tightened her disguising cloak and illusory spells around her body, locking away anything that might identify her to curious onlookers as she began the trek back home.

Yasaka made it barely three steps before a rock clattered and the air was full of a painfully familiar scent of tea and sake. "Ah." She said, straightening proudly at the spine despite the worried curdle in her gut.

" _Ah_ indeed." The other kitsune replied, a soft little smile on her lovely face. She offered Yasaka a small saucer of sake that was politely accepted before she continued in her otherworldly musical tone. "Yes, my dear one. You have been caught. Did you think I wouldn't notice when my chosen voice snuck out of my city?"

The sweet burn of alcohol blazed down Yasaka's throat, tasting like a thousand memories. It was painfully nostalgic, bringing her back to remembrances she couldn't truly recall. They were recollections of a mother's milk and a father's laugh that were probably more fiction than fact.

But despite the pain Yasaka drank to the dregs, because when she'd put on the mantle of priestess she'd sworn an oath never to run away from who she was.

When the sake was gone the saucer disappeared in a flicker of ghostly blue foxfire, vanishing like it had never been, and then the interloper began to _change_.

Ivory skin tanned, a round jaw squared, and bones shifted. The only thing that remained the same was the long flaming orange hair and the mischievous golden eyes.

Where once stood a buxom and beautiful woman that practically exuded bountiful fertility there was now a rough and calloused working man, his hands scarred with the long toils of labor. "Well in any case, I'm not inclined to obstruct what you're scheming to build." Inari grinned, and in his smirk was the promise of war and industry. "In fact, I think I'll even help you along."


	9. Chapter 9

Christmas Eve rolled in with a soft fluttering snowfall, fat pale flakes sprinkling from the grey sky in a slow but steady downpour. It brought a certain festival cheer to even a nominally Shinto town like Kuoh, and it made Naruto decide once he got home he was _definitely_ going to nag Yuuto into mixing together some proper Italian eggnog.

"Look, all I'm saying is that just because we can afford to buy everything doesn't mean that it's dumb to get gifts." Naruto lectured, wagging his finger and smirking when Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It's the spirit of the season sonny boy, and nothing says 'I'm thinking of you' quite like a year's supply worth of ramen."

Shaking his head, Sasuke let his coal dark gaze drift across the well-lit storefronts. "No matter how many times you suggest that, no one is stupid enough to go for it." The Uchiha deflected coolly before breaking off suddenly to enter the local bookstore that came up on the right.

"Hey, wait up!" Naruto called half-heartedly, following Sasuke into the building.

A little silver bell tingled as the two devils stepped inside, announcing their arrival to the bored looking darkly tanned girl that was sitting behind the scuffed counter, noisily chewing bubblegum. She waved lazily at them but made no effort to give a real greeting.

Which ran against the stereotype now that Naruto thought about it. _Watanabe Shoten_ was a pretty typical Mom-and-Pop shop, with beaten brass fixtures and the faint scent of old incense and wood. The redhead would have expected to see the shop manned by the upbeat and overly personal granddaughter of the owner, rather than a gyaru who obviously wanted to be anywhere else.

Lowering his voice as Sasuke moved to inspect a display, Naruto turned his back to the cashier and gave a sarcastic smirk. "Well that's just top tier customer service right there."

"If you say so."

Sasuke brushed him off, stepping into the next aisle with a pensive expression on his face. Despite his general disdain for the holidays, Sasuke took gift shopping as serious as he took everything else. Quite frankly Naruto found it fucking hilarious that the Uchiha approached it like a soldier marching off to the battlefield.

It was even funnier when he remembered that as kids Sasuke would have been the last one to bother with social obligations and niceties.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Naruto ambled over to peer over Sasuke's shoulder once his stick-in-the-mud friend picked up something to look over. "A Textbook of Animal Husbandry?" he scoffed, eying the slightly battered dark green cover. "A used copy too? Who are you tryin' to put sleep?"

"Yuuto has an interest." Sasuke shot back irritably, his leather gloves creaking slightly as he tucked the tome under his arm. "And I don't see how the boy that spends his free time _gardening_ can call other people's hobbies boring."

Naruto scowled at Sasuke's back. "Okay, one: I'm not a boy - I'm a man." He ignored Sasuke's sardonic smirk and gesture at their respective heights. Height had nothing to do with _this_. "And two, gardening is awesome! I'd expect you to recognize it, but I guess since you spent last week watching space Nazis with Rias that's too much to hope for."

Sighing explosively with all the irritation of a man who had already had this particular argument, Sasuke made his way to the cash and threw a handful of bills on the counter. "Legend of the Galactic Heroes is not about _Space Nazis_. The Galactic Empire has fascist elements but it's a Prussian analogue, not a stand-in for the Third Reich."

"And I bet it tickles your little goose-steppin' heart."

"Fuck off you mongrel."

* * *

Asia smushed down her ushanka, crowning her wheat-gold mane with soft rabbit fur. The well-loved winter cap completed her outfit, matching the thick black cotton overcoat and bushy mittens Lady Raynare had bought for her once winter had come to Japan.

"I'm going out for a walk." She called through the apartment, waiting until the angel gave a shout of recognition before darting out the door. Asia had a few hours before Lady Raynare expected her to come back to the local church for their Christmas celebrations, and she planned to use them to see Issei again.

Growing up in an isolated convent in sunny Florence hadn't prepared Asia for dealing with the whole wide world. Her sisters had been kind, but they weren't exactly what her friend had once called 'street smart'. If not for Lady Raynare and later Issei himself, Asia wouldn't have the first clue about how to survive in the world outside the nunnery.

And survive she had to once they'd excommunicated her for healing a young injured devil. Asia forgave the Church for that, but she could admit that she wouldn't have made it on her own. Without the Grigori's help she'd have starved in the first week, and without Issei she'd have been lost wandering the streets of Japan.

Sometimes Asia wondered if _this_ was God's will. If she was set to encounter difficulties but overcome them through the understanding and help of her friends. It seemed like something that He, with His power and love and mercy, would do. Which was pretty amazing and humbling in hindsight.

The idea that _she_ of all people was watched so closely by Him took her breath away.

Smiling happily, Asia skipped across the cracked sidewalks, jumping over slushy puddles and humming under her breath the whole way. "Tu scendi dalle stelle, O Re del Cielo…" the blonde sang softly, her bright green eyes scanning over the crowd for the familiar warm brown strands of Issei's hair.

If she had to describe him, Asia would say Issei reminded her of milk chocolate. His eyes and his hair were both a light sweet brown that suited his generous nature.

But that train of thought led to her picturing her friend wrapped up in tin-foil and paper like a candy bar from the corner store, and the image was so ridiculous she couldn't help but giggle with laughter.

"Well aren't you a happy camper today?"

"Issei-kun!" Asia greeted, turning to the side with a wide grin and giving herself over to the enchanted translation stone Lady Raynare had given her. "How are you today?" For a few seconds she thought about giving him a great big hug, but Asia thought better of it once she remembered how slick the pavement could sometimes get in winter.

Issei's coffee shaded gaze softened, glimmering with focused warmth that sparked a little giddy flutter in Asia's belly.

"I'm fine, Asia-chan." Sighing easily, he brushed the snowflakes from his hair with a bare hand. "There's not a whole lot going on. Even Kaa-san let up and didn't badger me about where I was off to today."

"That's good?" Asia offered uncertainly, threading her arm through his and gently nudging the taller teen down the street. She wasn't quite sure what advice she could give her friend beyond suggesting forgiveness and patience. As an orphan Asia had never had parents of her own, and while she'd looked up to the older sisters at the convent that wasn't the same.

"Yeah, it's pretty good." Issei clarified instantly, easing Asia's worries. "It was a bit touch and go for a while there, and she was keeping pretty tight tabs on me, but I guess now she figures I'm not going to end up as a hikikomori or something."

Happy that things seemed to be looking up for Issei after a few rocky months where he seemed constantly tired and almost afraid, Asia snuggled in a little closer and let her attention drift across the multi-shaded Christmas lights that decorated the crowded stores.

Japan was not a Christian country, and so any celebration the people in Kuoh had for the Christmas holidays was just a bit of silliness motivated by markets and fascination with the West. But it was still nice to look at and Asia didn't think it was a bad thing. She'd spent her entire life in various convents with the Church and the Grigori in Italy, and she'd never gotten to see anything like it before.

God might punish evildoers and want to spread the Word to heathen nations, but He wasn't just rage and power. He was love and joy and mirth. Asia didn't believe for a second that He'd resent the Japanese for enjoying Christmas, even if most weren't believers and had no idea what the day really signified.

"Are _you_ okay?" Issei prodded with concern, his brow furrowed in thought as he studied her. "You seem to be drifting off a bit?" The question wasn't exactly profound or earth-shaking, but it proved something a little more important than that. It let Asia know that Issei _cared_ , in his cautious but gentle way, and made her decide maybe she should get her head out of the clouds.

She could muse on theology at any time, but Asia wouldn't be able to see her friend for another few days if Lady Raynare needed her around the apartment.

Grinning back up at him, Asia untangled their arms and pulled away so she could poke his cheek with a gloved finger. "I'm fine! But you're not going to be!" The blonde darted to the side, scooping up a handful of snow and throwing the chilly white ball directly at his face.

The snowball sailed right over Issei's shoulder, and he just stared at her for a long, confused moment. Then a sharp grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. "So that's how you want to play it? Game on!"

* * *

Issei watched and waved as Asia made her way through the crowd and out of sight. He was probably wasting his time just standing around instead of starting his own journey home, but he couldn't quite make his feet move. Asia hadn't even been gone for more than thirty seconds and he was already missing her, frozen in place and vainly hoping she'd return.

Damn, he really had it badly didn't he?

The corner of Issei's mouth quirked up in a bitter smirk, and he shoved his hands in his pockets before inhaling a slow deep breath through his nose. Chilly air filled Issei's lungs, so cold that he couldn't even smell the industrial pollution in it.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Steadying himself against the heartache and faint embers of suspicion, Issei hunched his shoulders and turned away. There was something wrong with him, that he could so easily fall in love again and again despite the world already showing him that he couldn't trust anyone and that the monsters might be hiding under the bed.

But no matter what his mind screamed about Asia, Issei's heart had still melted. After months and months of meeting her in public places she'd never done anything that made him feel unsafe or unwanted. Only a man with a heart made out of iron could be immune to the high music of her voice or the soft brush of her hands.

"Fuck me." Issei cursed lowly, exhaling a short bark of sour humor. Maybe he really was screwed and baited by the honey trap. Fool him once, shame on her. Fool him twice, shame on him. But honey trap or not he'd kept coming back, pulled by innocence and his own human weakness. "I really am screwed, aren't I?"

Ice crunched beneath Issei's heels as he took the first steps on his long road home, huddling his chin against his chest for warmth. The park was as cold as the Southern Sea, frozen wind blowing between the buildings and stealing the last flicker of heat gifted by the rapidly setting sun.

Bright pink flashed in the corner of Issei's vision, and he turned to look, only to find himself groaning loudly. "Oh fuck me!"

Hanging half off the nearest park bench was Asia's little leather wallet, a _Hello Kitty_ graphic peeking at Issei with dead plastic eyes.

Issei scooped up the tiny purse and dropped it in his pocket with a fierce frown, turning to look back towards the little side street Asia had wandered up. On the one hand he could just take her wallet home and return it to her when they met next Tuesday, with no extra effort on his part. On the other he could run after her and hope he managed to catch sight of her before she was too far gone.

In the end it was the image of Asia panicking about her lost money that made the decision for him. He'd feel like a steaming pile of crap if he left her to worrying and panic on her own.

"These girls are going to be the death of me." Issei grumbled, zipping up his coat before launching into a steady jog up the street. The brunette kept his sharp brown gaze peeled for black ice and bystanders as he rolled over a low snowbank and turned up the second street on the right.

Issei swallowed back the low burn in his chest, striding across the slushy pavement and looking from side to side desperately. He just needed that _one_ glimpse of Asia's bright gold hair turning down another side street or entering into one of the increasingly shabby houses he ran past.

Once he caught sight of her he'd just shout and hope she heard him, or if worst came to worst he'd knock on her door and hope she didn't think he was creepy for showing up ten seconds after she got home.

As the minutes and buildings ticked on by without a trace of the young nun, Issei founded his confidence fading. Sure, it was a bit of a long shot but he hadn't wanted to leave Asia alone and anxious about her lost purse. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Just as the last dregs of his hope drained away, Issei finally caught sight of the orange street lamps reflecting off the shiny bright blonde waves of Asia's hair. "Hey, Asia –"he began with a loud yelp, only to miss a step in sheer shock and tumble to his knees.

The rough gravel shredded through the worn fibres of his jeans and left his shins scratched up and bleeding, but Issei barely felt it as he gaped up the small hill that rose in front of him. The little mount itself was nothing important, just being another roll in the earth that made up the bounds and valleys of Kouh Town.

What _was_ important was Amano Yuuma standing in front of the beaten down church that crowned the hill, lifting a lazy hand to greet Asia as the nun rushed up to her. Issei could hear what they said from so far away as he huddled behind a little snowbank, but he swore quietly as Asia followed the dark-haired monster into the bowels of the church.

Shit, what was he supposed to do? Issei had no doubt in his mind that if Asia was just a normal girl that she'd end up murdered and sacrificed for some demonic ritual. But was Asia a normal girl in the first place? She seemed pretty cosy with the monster that had tried to murder him. Was their entire friendship just an attempt to get close to him and kill him again?

Cold sweat broke out along the grey skin of Issei's face, and he fumbled for his cell phone without knowing anything better to do. It was pretty damn useless though. What was he supposed to do? Call the police and say some angel was trying to murder his friend? They'd laugh it off as a prank. If Issei could contact that spearman that had saved him half a year ago, he would. But he couldn't. It was just him crouching alone in the dark winter night.

Fuck.

_Fuck!_

A pretty big part of Issei was screaming at him that he had to back away. He had no chance in hell of being able to go toe to toe with Amano and trying would only end up with him laying face down in a ditch somewhere. Assuming Amano didn't decide to burn him alive instead out of a twisted sense of revenge.

That wasn't even getting into the question of if Asia was pretending to be human the whole time. If it was just an elaborate trap to try and net him, Issei would fall for it hook, line, and sinker if he rushed into the ruined temple to try and save Asia.

The only smart option was to slink his way home and pretend he hadn't seen anything. Issei could live to see another day easily if he did that. Amano hadn't seen him peeping and he could hide in the safety of his own house. If Asia was pretending there was no doubt he'd see her again.

But if she wasn't pretending, Asia was just an innocent girl that was going to die.

Furious tears burned at the corners of Issei's eyes, and he shrieked into his palm. The skin and bones muffled his voice, until all that was left was the shredded feeling in the back of his throat. Fumbling fingers flipped open the cheap plastic of his phone, and the young man pounded through his contact list with shaking hands.

Issei wanted to call his parents. He wanted to call the police. He wanted to call Matsuda or Motohama and gasp out the truth. But the truth was too dangerous for the people he held close to his heart. So for lack of a better thing to do Issei prayed to the gods he wasn't sure he even still believed in and clicked on the last number that popped up.

A little tiny buzz jangled in Issei's ear, steady as the tides and about as reassuring as a funeral dirge. Maybe this was a stupid human thing to do, because Issei was going to die trying to save Asia, and despite that he didn't want to go into the void without a last word.

The speaker in his ear clicked as the line picked up, and Issei grinned fatalistically. "Hey, Naruto. What's up?"

* * *

A thick droplet of hail bounced off Sasuke's shoulder, but with the Sharingan blazing he wasn't afraid of running face-first into a hunk of ice as he raced across the rooftops. More than once he'd slipped across a stretch of black ice as he touched down on the shingled roofs, but the Uchiha pushed on.

If this turned out to be a wild goose chase, Naruto was going to _pay_ with a pound of flesh Sasuke decided as he scaled a dull concrete apartment building to get a better vantage.

All it took was one cryptic call from that Hyoudou kid to have Naruto flipping his lid. The redhead had dialed up every member of both his own and Rias' peerages to harass them into running around in the winter evening like chickens with their heads cut off, just because that one guy on his soccer team apparently was having a little bit of trouble.

Akeno was going to leave hot dogs in Naruto's bed again if it turned out that the problem was Hyoudou's bike had a flat tire or something equally as mundane.

Sasuke was halfway to the next roof when his phone started vibrating in his pocket, accompanied by the tinny weeb shit jingle that Koneko insisted on making his ringtone. "What?" he snapped as he flipped the dark blue mobile open and pressed it to his ear.

"Hey, did you find anything yet!" Naruto practically shrieked over the line, making Sasuke jerk his head away and shock and nearly miss his landing.

Snarling a rude denial back to the anxious Gremory heir, Sasuke ended the call and resisted the urge to stomp the little cell to pieces. It wasn't that he couldn't afford a new one, but despite Naruto's obnoxious energy he still had a job to do.

And despite his blasé approach to the whole thing and his dismissal of Naruto's concerns, Sasuke felt on edge. The hairs on the back of his neck were prickled and his shoulders were tense. Tension born of instinct stalked the night, like it had all those years ago when Itachi did what he did to their family.

A flicker of color drew Sasuke's attention, and he peered through the swirling snowflakes with a furrowed brow. "Well I'll be damned." He muttered to himself, blinking with confusion. There Hyoudou was, barely visible in his dark blue jacket as he paced back and forth in front of a run-down church.

As far as Sasuke could see the kid wasn't in any danger. He was just wandered around, fiddling with the door handles for a few seconds before jumping away. It was like he was playing some bizarre version of hot potato, and the Uchiha wondered if Hyoudou was drunk.

It would certainly explain the cryptic and weepy phone call.

Sighing with exasperation, Sasuke dialed Naruto back and waited as the buzzer rang on. After the third beep Naruto picked up, and Sasuke cut him off before the redhead could start raging about the way Sasuke had hung up on him about five minutes ago. "I found him. He's just lurking around that abandoned church up on the hill past the market district. Looks fine."

Naruto was silent for a long moment. Then his voice came back low and confused. "Is he drunk or something?"

"That's what I thought." Sasuke admitted, leaning against the rail as he watched Hyoudou. "Anyway, I'll – wait."

"What? What's going on? Speak up you spastic bastard!"

Unaware of the narrowed eyes drilling into his back, Hyoudou seemed to come to a decision, abruptly ending his pacing and staring at the door. Then the boy _broke the lock_ on the church door, vanishing into the depths of the boarded-up building.

"Looks like Wonder Boy decided to add breaking and entering to his charge of underage drinking. Enough of this shit. I'll get him before he hurts himself. You owe me big for this one, loser."

* * *

"Lady Raynare, I don't like this."

Fighting back the urge to strangle the chatty little blonde to death, Raynare forced a cheery smile at the girl. "Please just bear with it. This is important and will help a lot of people." The false benevolence tasted sickly sweet on her tongue, but Raynare wasn't going to ruin the façade so close to the finish line.

Besides, as irritating as pretending to be a good little drone that loved helping the humans was, dealing with Asia screaming and fighting back would be more so. A sweet little lie about how the ritual would improve her ability to heal the sick and comfort the mongrels of the world could go pretty far.

The little nun pouted but stopped wiggling around while Raynare suspended her from the crucifix with silk ribbons. "That's not too tight?" she asked idly as she tested the knots with one hand, not really caring about the answer and just taking the chance to do a last-minute inspection of the runes she'd spent weeks carving into the giant wooden cross.

"No, it's okay. Thank you for asking."

Satisfied that her ritual preparations were perfect and that the little brat wouldn't be able to tear through the dozens of silk wisps Raynare had tied her part of her body down with, Raynare retreated to lounge on one of the few pews in the depilated shack that was still structurally sound. "We just need to wait another ten minutes."

"For the last light of the sun?"

"Correct. I need to draw power from it since I'm working alone."

"Oh, I see."

Asia was obviously uncomfortable, suspended in midair by silk bonds in all the colors of the rainbow, her arms held out in an imitation of the Crucifixion.

Raynare by contrast was finding a small tickle of amusement at the girl unknowingly and idealistically marching to her own death, and as the minutes ticked on she was finding it harder and harder to pretend to be a concerned surrogate mommy.

Checking her watch again, Raynare smirked. It was time.

She stood up with the faint rasp of cotton, her pale white vestments mirroring those Asia was swathed in. It was a deceptively pure garment, soft and clean but thin and outlining the curves of the blonde girl's breast.

For a second Raynare had a brief flicker of regret. She really should have taken the chance to seduce the girl sometime over the past half-year. It really was a waste. Those little pink nipples poking through Asia's ankle-length robe were to die for.

"Don't you dare do anything to her!"

Raynare whipped around at the interruption, her pupils blown wide with a sudden rush of shocked adrenaline. Then she registered exactly what it was that she was seeing. "Oh, _what the hell_." Raynare deadpanned, pinching the bridge of her nose in disdain.

Standing and the darkened doorway with his face lit up by the floating magelights Raynare had scattered about was the Hyoudou brat. He looked fit to piss himself, knees knocking and his eyes reddened like he'd been crying for the last few minutes. Overall, he had a pretty pathetic appearance, and Raynare felt the corners of her mouth twitching up in sadistic amusement.

"Well look what the hellhound dragged in."

Really, could her day get any better at this point? She'd been worried about what her superiors would do after she'd gone off the grid for months. But with Twilight Healing in her possession and the Red Dragon Emperor practically handing himself over to her on a silver platter, all would be forgiven. Raynare might even get personal recognition from Lord Azazel for such a success.

Issei recoiled at the naked malevolence in Raynare's voice, and when she summoned a magenta spear of hardened light to her hand his face went absolutely white with remembered fear.

"Wait, Lady Raynare! It's Issei-kun! He's a good person." Asia piped up with the blind faith of a deluded child, fully invested in her illusions. She had no idea what kind of woman Raynare really was, and honestly believed that claiming Issei was her friend would be enough to clear up all the hostility.

Loveable little fool. Even if she hadn't marked Hyoudou individually for death Raynare never would have let him leave the church alive. And with the solstice at hand and the sacrifice prepared, Raynare didn't have to pretend anymore. "I know exactly who he is." She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Asia, showing too many teeth to be comforting.

Then Raynare _moved_ , lunging forward with pinpoint precision and the tip of her spear aimed directly at the brunette boy's heart.

Issei leapt desperately to the side, barely dodging the lethal point of Raynare's lance. He yelped when a rotten pew exploded into musty shards of wood, mixing with the rain of her crow-dark feathers and showering him with a promise of violence.

Clicking her tongue mockingly, Raynare turned on the spot and struck again, once more missing by a hair and shattering the floorboards beneath the force of her blow. "Come on brat, don't you want to make it out of here?" she laughed, slicing Issei's cheek open to the bone with her next stab. "Run, run, run as fast as you can."

Blood splattered, and Asia gave a high-pitched scream of horror and denial as Raynare lazily threw her spear again, the magenta projectile rocketing through the air to take Issei right through the meat of his left bicep.

Issei cursed in agony, groaning as he pulled the spear out and threw it to the floor, stumbling back with a gasp of pain. A thick stream of blood rapidly turned the sleeve of his jacket dark.

Glazed brown eyes shifted between the advancing fallen angel and the crucifix his friend was strapped to, and Issei weighed the likelihood he could untie her before he took a lance between the shoulder blades. "Bitch!"

"Why thank you." Raynare drawled, stepping forward slowly and crowding Hyoudou away from the exits. Once he was appropriately corralled, she scooped up her discarded spear with casual grace.

Waste not, want not.

"Aren't you going to come after me?" Her sharp mockery cut over Asia's frantic begging like a blade, sarcastically high pitched like she was talking to an idiot infant. "Slay the big bad monster like the big strong hero you are?"

When Issei refused to rise to the bait, stricken stiff with terror and mortal desperation, Raynare rolled her eyes with disgust. It was hardly fitting sport if he cowered in the corner and shat himself. There was no enjoyment if he didn't fight back, or at least try to run away.

This was like shooting fish in a barrel, which Raynare _had_ actually done; weighing committing suicide the whole time over partaking in such a pointless act.

Deciding that it was time to end her game and get back to the ritual, Raynare properly gauged her aim, deciding not to let Hyoudou barely 'dodge' this time around. "I'd say it's been fun, but it hasn't. Oh, and when you die nothing happens. Have fun." Then she hefted her spear and let it loose in a volley that splintered the very air with the force of its movement.

It traveled so quickly Hyoudou didn't even have the ability to see it, and the only reason Raynare's thrust didn't take him right through the forehead was the chair that suddenly slammed into the boy's side and knocked him out of the way.

"What the fuck?" Issei bellowed as he bounced off the wall and landed in a bruised heap on the floor. Raynare might have laughed at the sight, but she wasn't even looking at him.

The dark-haired devil her younger half-sister had practically been soaking her panties over moved out of the shadows, his arm lowering back to his side, fingers still splayed from the throw that had saved Issei's life.

"You're going to need to see this in person." He muttered into the phone his other hand had pressed up against his ear. "No, don't fucking run, just teleport. Yes, I'm serious. Just hurry the fuck up dumbass."

With a final scoff he snapped the mobile in half and threw it into one of the dimly lit corners of the former house of worship. A spinning demonic red gaze shifted from the groaning brunette teenager to the irritated fallen angel before settling on the weeping nun that was tied up against a cross with silk ribbons. "Someone explain to me what the fuck this is."


	10. Chapter 10

Lightning crackled between Sasuke's fingertips as he deflected another one of Raynare's jabs, but his palm still blistered from the contact with her sacred power. Fallen angel or not, she could still channel the holy light of heaven and it was enough to sting and sear.

"Get out of my way!"

Sasuke thinned his lips in denial, doubling down on his Chidori and using the electric spell as a bludgeon to drive Raynare back and away from the two humans. It wasn't the most effective thing in the world, since the Chidori was designed as a piercing assassination technique, but without his katana he had few other choices.

Despite being much stronger than Raynare was, Sasuke couldn't simply murder her. Even if they disliked each other she was still Akeno's sister, and the Uchiha knew first hand how deeply blood ties could bind even when both parties rejected them.

But neither could he let her murder Hyoudou or that blonde girl and go on her merry way. Naruto would have a fit.

So Sasuke was stuck, trying to wear out the fallen angel so he could disarm her without actually hurting her; which left him to take a dozen scrapes and bruises along the way. The only blessing he could count on was that Raynare seemed as reluctant to kill him as he was to kill her.

Raynare conjured up a second smooth spear of magenta crystal, lobbing it at Hyoudou while she moved to press Sasuke with the chipped lance in her hand. "Stop interfering! This has nothing to do with you!"

Clenching his jaw, Sasuke leaned back at the waist, his bare hand bracing himself against the stained floorboards as crackling angelic light sailed over his head. The other hand was wreathed in white lightning, which intensified as he shaped it into the form of a chittering Chidori Eisou.

Hyoudou shrieked like a little girl when pink and ivory sorcery shattered against each other in front of his face, showering him with fading motes but leaving him afraid and alive.

Furious at being thwarted again, Raynare hammered her extended elbow down and drove the point right into the exposed length of Sasuke's belly, forcing the devil to the ground.

Wheezing through the pain, Sasuke grabbed the collar of her robes and pulled her along with him.

They went down in a tangle of limbs, glass tinkling as Raynare's spear hit the hardwood and finally shattered into tiny fading pink stars. The growling of her frustrated voice in Sasuke's ears intensified as he took advantage of their proximity and rolled Raynare on her back, pinning her down with the full weight of his muscled frame.

"Calm down." Sasuke ordered coolly, jerking his head to the side to dodge the sudden wad of saliva Raynare spat up at him. "Enough." Grasping both her wrists with one hand as he held Raynare's arms down above her head, Sasuke used his other hand to force her head to the side so that her cheek was pressed right up against the floor, preventing her from any more attempts to spit or bite. " _Enough_."

"Go stick on a horse's dick and spin."

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke snorted. "Somehow I should be surprised, but I'm not. It looks like you're shaping up to be an even bigger bondage freak than your sister is." He felt her jaw tense angrily beneath his fingertips, but Raynare didn't have the strength to throw him off.

Satisfied that the situation had been deescalated, Sasuke looked up at the gaping Hyoudou kid. "Stop staring like a gormless fool and untie her." He ordered, shaking his head when Issei squeaked like a little chipmunk and hurried to obey. "How you didn't kill him instantly is beyond me."

Huffing at the implication of weakness, Raynare glared at the devil through the corner of her eye. "I _would_ have if you'd stayed out of my way."

"Or if you hadn't played with your food."

For a long moment the only sound was the low murmur of whispered conversation between the two traumatized humans.

"Touché."

Naruto arrived like he always did, with a shout and an echoing bang. The redhead exploded through the church door, scattering broken shards of oak as he barreled into the room with his eyes blown wide. "Nobody move!"

A low moan of disgust slithered out of Raynare's mouth, and she went limp with resignation. Sasuke released his grip on her head in response, but kept her arms pinned down just in case she got any ideas.

"You're late, moron."

Once he was sure no one was stabbing anyone else to death in some hidden corner of the shadowed room, Naruto waved sheepishly at Issei and then plodded over to Sasuke. Yuuto and Akeno followed at his heels, silent in comparison to the Gremory heir's noisy gravity. "What's all this then?"

"Proof that fate is an abominable bitch." Raynare snarked, twisting her head to scowl at the newcomers. "Where are the rest of the little mongrels? Might as well make this a full fucking masquerade at this point."

Naruto squinted in thought, studying the fallen angel's petulant features like he wasn't quite sure if she was joking or not. "You can let her up I think. Unless this is what gets you off. Just like your sister I guess." He muttered, wincing when Akeno punched him in the lower back. "Okay, okay! There's no need for domestic violence."

Scoffing at the cringing redhead, Sasuke let go and started to rise.

"Wait don't!" Issei yelled frantically, limping forward with a hand pressed to his aching hip. Asia practically huddled behind the beaten and bruised boy. "She'll try to kill everyone again!"

Sasuke sighed explosively and sank back down.

The sudden pressure of Sasuke's full body weight landing back on Raynare's stomach made her give a displeased huff. Not for the first time he was really questioning his sanity in caving to Naruto's begging. At this point he was starting to feel like an anthropomorphized paper weight.

"Don't be so dramatic. I'm not going to kill _everyone_." Raynare denied sourly, rubbing her wrists and eying Sasuke speculatively as she responded to the human boy. "Just _you_. There's no reason for the rest of you to get involved."

The flickering pale glow cast by Raynare's smokeless magelights swelled across Naruto's face as he looked from Issei to Raynare and back again, an irritated pinch to his eyebrows. "Whoa, whoa. No one is killing anyone, so let's all just take it down a notch and cool off, alright? Everybody calm down."

"Calm down?" Issei demanded incredulously, clenching his fists until the knuckles whitened. " _Calm down_? There is no way in hell I'm going to calm down." Pure black hate bled into the brunette's eyes, his voice rising in fury. The revulsion twisted his expression until he looked less than human, ranting and raving as he explained how the fallen angel had tried to kill him all those months ago. "So either you kill her, or I will!"

Naruto's face had grown stonier and stonier as Issei's tale weaved on, and when the teen delivered his ultimatum his features might as well have been carved out of granite. But he kept silent, studying Issei as the boy trembled with the barely contained desire to murder. "I see." He eventually said, turning slowly to look at Raynare. "I thought you were better than this."

Beneath the chilly disdain that froze Naruto's tones, Sasuke could hear the faint thread of disbelieving betrayal. He supposed it should have shocked him that on some level Naruto had seen Raynare as a prickly but fundamentally good person, but it didn't. Despite learning his lessons in the ruins of Konoha he still wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Bristling at the devil who seemed to think he could judge her, Raynare didn't even notice when Ravel and Rias finally appeared in the door. "Keep your moral hand-wringing to yourself kid. The business of the Grigori isn't for the likes of you. Now mind your own damn business and leave me be."

"And yet, you seem to want to conduct that business in our territory." Rias cut in bitingly, brushing the snow from her hair as she made her way up to the simmering conflict zone. "Kuoh Town and its environs are the jurisdiction of the Gremory clan. _All_ business here is our business." Wordlessly, she settled a gloved hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"That is at best a flimsy pseudo-legality and you know it." Pushing at Sasuke's chest, the fallen angel coaxed him to finally let her up now that they had her sufficiently surrounded. "You don't have anything close to true control here, and even if you did it's not formally part of Gehenna. Try again little girl."

"Old hag."

A peeved twitch spasmed in Raynare's eyebrow at Ravel's mumbled insult, but she was smart enough to know when she was outmatched. Having finally managed to get off the floor, she'd rather not be thrown back down by a dour Uchiha just because she tried to teach the girl a lesson in respect. "Or don't. It doesn't make a difference to me and I'm not going to just start spilling my guts just because you decided to give me a sad pre-teen pout."

Whatever cutting reply Rias gave was smothered by the sound of the windows blowing in, a dozen glass panes crumbling simultaneously and letting in the howling winter gale. Silver light glinted from the razor edge of a spear, promising unending retribution. "As much as I'd like to stand here and watch you animals keep squabbling, I have better things to do."

* * *

It took about five seconds for everything to go to hell in a handbasket.

"Get down!"

"Ashes!"

Akeno shielded her eyes from the rain of splinters, peeking through the cracks between her fingers at the spear that had nearly taken her head off. It was a gaudy thing, gilded with gold threads that flowed down from the tip in curving waves. The blade of it shone silver and sharp, ready to slice through flesh and destroy lives.

The edged point wasn't what really bothered her though. What really caught Akeno's attention was the sheer holy energy she could feel pouring off the lance, so potent that it made her head pound with pain and the threads of angelic ancestry in her marrow sing.

"Stop staring into space and help me!" Raynare shouted in her ear, pulling Akeno to her feet with a wild light in her gaze. The mere fact that her elder pureblood sister would lower herself to speak to Akeno _directly_ was what drove home how desperate their situation had really gotten in the last minute. Most days Raynare tried to pretend that Akeno didn't even exist.

"Fine!"

And then things took a turn for the surreal when Issei broke into a wide grin and ran _towards_ the dark-haired spearman, dragging Asia along behind him. "Oh man am I glad to see you!"

"What, they know each other?" Naruto demanded incredulously, the Power of Destruction flickering into view around his clenched fists. The redhead had become subdued after realizing that he was going to have to try to mediate between his formal ally and someone that could have become a friend, but the prospect of a fight had him fired right back up. "You almost killed Akeno you crazy bastard! Who the hell are you anyway?"

Waving the two defenceless humans off behind him, the blue-eyed man frowned at the Gremory heir. "I suppose I can give you that much before I kill you. I am Cao Cao, descended in the right line from the King of Wei. Do you have any other pointless questions you need to ask?"

"Yes." Rias stepped forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her tense nephew. "As you saw, we intended on mediating the dispute between Raynare and these children. There's no need for you to escalate to conflict in their defence, so why are you turning to violence?"

"None of you are human, and that's enough." Cao Cao answered curtly, prompting Issei to regard Naruto with betrayed horror. There was no time to dwell on that reaction though, because Cao Cao vanished between one blink and the next.

A fist hammered into Akeno's side like a bullet train, and she _heard_ the crack of her ribs beneath the blow that sent her flying across the room. The taste of iron covered her tongue, and she dimly registered that she'd bitten the inside of her cheek before she hit the wall headfirst and blacked out.

Searing flame tore through the air as Ravel counterattacked, orange and yellow sparks exploding from the palms of her hand in a gout that was hot enough to melt bronze.

It did nothing.

Cao Cao moved with easy - _lazy_ \- grace, taking his spear back up and using it to bat aside Ravel's sorcery like it was nothing but fluff. The sacred power running through his lance spread her demonic flare into rapidly curling embers.

Then without missing a beat, he turned on his heel to bring the point of his spear to bear against Naruto's charge, not even blinking at the sight of the raging Rasengan clutched in the devil's hand.

"Do you want to die?" Raynare snarled, barreling into Naruto's side and knocking them both away from the deadly tip of Cao Cao's Sacred Gear. A fresh wound opened along her side when Naruto was too slow in dispersing the chaotic ball of power clutched in his hand.

In any other situation she'd curse him for it, but at the moment Raynare's fear mattered more than her pain. "Or are you just dumb enough to think you can go toe to toe with the True Longinus?"

Rias and Sasuke circled the perimeter, his hand cradling a roaring Chidori while her Power of Destruction seeped from her fingertips like crimson mist. But Raynare's off-the-cuff insult brought a grey pallor to Rias' face, and she spared a worried glance for the fallen angel. "True Longinus? Are you serious?"

Snorting at the atmosphere of terror that was slowly filling the room, Cao Cao chuckled, his breath a white fog in the chilled air. "She is." He took a moment to bask in the curtained despair that rippled across Ravel's expression, and then finally started to take things seriously.

What followed was nothing less than complete and utter domination.

He moved too quickly and hit too hard for any of them to keep up with. Every landed blow broke bone and burnt flesh, and it was only Cao Cao's own unwavering confidence that prevented him from simply striking head on with the True Longinus and killing them one by one.

He had a show to put on after all.

Issei watched with shocked amazement as a mere human took down half a dozen supernatural beings without even breaking a sweat.

A casual backhand crushed Rias' nose.

A jab from the pommel of his spear to the middle of Ravel's back left her limp and paralyzed on the floor while her regenerative abilities tried to heal her.

A glancing slice to the thigh had Sasuke hobbling around while he tried to overcome the seething holy poison crippling his muscles.

In the end there was really only one way it could have ended, with the devils and the fallen angel strewn across the church like broken dolls while Cao Cao looked on. His eyes burned like cold stars with unshakable conviction, and when he looked back at Issei it was to make one thing very clear to the nascent Red Dragon Emperor. "Never underestimate humanity."

* * *

Naruto hacked up a thick mouthful of blood, spitting the gore out and whipping his mouth with the back of his hands. Then he forced himself up and through the pain until he was standing again. Based on the grinding in his left forearm he was pretty sure the bone was fractured badly, but he wasn't going to lie down on the floor and die.

What a fucking clusterfuck. When he'd gotten that call from Issei Naruto was expecting to have to bust in and save him from some Yakuza debt sharks or something. Instead he got Raynare conducting a perverted bondage ritual while trying to kill Issei, and then fucking _True Longinus_ getting shoved up his ass.

If there was ever a time for Lady Luck to lend him a hand, it was now.

Cao Cao meet Naruto's glare fearlessly, cocking up a dark blue eyebrow as he studied the defiant Gremory heir. The rest of the devils were groaning and climbing to their feet as well, but none of them were giving the spearman the sheer amount of venom Naruto was.

Clicking his tongue as he made his decision, Cao Cao readied his spear with a flourish, laying the tip directly against Naruto's breast.

The touch of blessed metal on devil flesh created a faint sizzling sound, Naruto's skin boiling and blistering around the point of contact. The redhead was too beaten and too exhausted to throw himself back into the battle, and he'd known from the first time he saw Cao Cao move that he was totally outclassed by the human's strength.

But if he was going to die, Naruto was damn well going to do it on his feet fighting against the fading of the light. "Bring it, asshole."

For the second time that night, fate's game was derailed by the explosive entrance of a new player.

But where Cao Cao blew out the windows and allowed the breath of winter to seep in through the cracks, Serafall Leviathan _tore the roof off._

Naruto had about one second to smirk mockingly before Serafall hit the deck, driving back Cao Cao with a flurry of violent ice and screaming snow.

Cao Cao had defeated the young devils with the ease of a grown man taking candy from a baby. But True Longinus or not, the descendent of the King of Wei was totally outclassed by the Satan.

Six seconds after Serafall appeared Cao Cao fled the field, grabbing hold of Issei and Asia before diving desperately through a smoky swirl of teleportation magic. He left behind the better part of his left leg below the knee, the flesh frozen solid where Serafall had ripped it off with her bare hands.

Throwing back his head, Naruto barked with hysteric amusement. He laughed until he cried, a single trailing tear freezing on his cheek in deference to the sheer might of Serafall's ice-driven sorcery. "Oh man, you got him good."

Serafall shrugged one pale shoulder, unbothered by the cold despite her thin sleeveless green dress. "It was nothing." She demurred, one corner of her mouth briefly curling at the compliment. Then the Satan let her gaze sweep across the battered devils and frowned in concern. "That said, I _will_ be calling Sirzechs to tell him about your recklessness."

The thick disapproval in her voice normally would have made him bristle, but this time Naruto decided to take his lumps. He kind of deserved it, seeing as how if Serafall hadn't appeared out of nowhere they'd all be vaporized into nothingness by the purifying power of the Spear of Destiny. It was a damn close call, and a kick in the teeth.

He'd forgotten just how outmatched they all were.

At that moment Naruto vowed he'd never get caught off guard like he had tonight again. "Fucking True Longinus, _fuck_." He muttered, shivering when Serafall's scowl deepened at his cursing. Last thing he needed was to end the evening getting his mouth washed out with soap by his self-proclaimed auntie.

The streaks of blood that had dried on Rias' chin made her look like a domestic abuse victim, but she'd managed to heal her broken nose enough that when she hobbled up to Serafall she could speak clearly. "Not that we aren't grateful for your help, but why are you here?"

Which was the million-dollar question when Naruto took a second to think about it. Serafall had pulled all their asses out of the fire, but that didn't change the fact that she wasn't supposed to be in Kuoh at all. If anything, she should be a dimension hop or two away, not standing in front of them dolled up and smelling of sweet perfume.

Yet despite that, it was Serafall that seemed the most confused out of all of them. "Why wouldn't I be here?" she blinked, her ink dark eyebrows climbing up her forehead. "Where else am I supposed to be? I'm always here around this time." Deliberately, she motioned at her dress.

Naruto squinted at the Satan's dress. It was good quality fabric he guessed, but not something any self-respecting noble would be caught dead wearing to a formal party. "Uh, I'm not seeing it. Unless you're cruising for a hot date tonight or something."

A slightly disturbed expression crossed Serafall's face, and she peered at Naruto like she was trying to peel away the layers and peek in on his inner thoughts. "While she's as cute as a button, I wouldn't say that dinner with my baby sister qualifies as a _hot date_ , though perhaps you would." Violet eyes flickered suspiciously between Rias and Naruto.

"Absolutely not." Rias declared frantically, catching on quicker than her nephew did and shaking her head in frantic denial. "We just had no idea that it was Sona you were meeting!"

"But I always meet Sona every other day for dinner." Serafall pointed out slowly, reconsidering the two redheads. "She said she even invited you to open presents with us tonight."

Then abruptly the lightbulb clicked on, and Serafall crouched down in a ball, blubbering with fat thick tears streaking down her cheeks. "Unless she lied to me? Oh, my beloved little sister is so ashamed of me she won't even admit we spend time together to her friends!"

Raynare watched with disbelief as one of the feared Satans of Gehenna broke down into a weeping mess in the middle of a destroyed battlefield because of her sister's teenage rebellion. "Is this _reality_?"

After a minute she remembered just what kind of a fool her own father was and wondered why she even bothered to be surprised by anything anymore.

* * *

In the end, Raynare found she didn't have much of a choice. When the Leviathan told them she'd march them all right home, Raynare had no choice but to follow along like a whipped cur. She didn't think for a second she'd be allowed to slink away, and she wasn't dumb enough to think she could outrun the Satan if she tried.

So Raynare swallowed the indignity of it all and cringed along after her father's Big Mistake, watching her ponytail weave and bob as Akeno stumbled the way back to the opulant manse Zeoticus Gremory had tastelessly built in the suburbs.

"Alright, in you go." Serafall declared once they'd made it to the front door, turning and pushing the wounded crowd through the entryway one by one. She didn't even pause at Raynare, simply shoving the surly fallen angel in the rest of them. "I'm going to call your father, _and_ your mother, Naruto. In the meantime, put some of those phoenix tears to work."

"What? No!" Naruto shouted, only for the Satan to shut the door in his face with a terrible finality. The redhead slapped the wood in frustration, visibly struggling with the urge to run back out in the streets and beg the much older devil not to spill the beans. Then he sagged in defeat, sending a look of resigned despair at Rias before turning and leading them deeper into the bowels of the mansion.

Raynare was the last to move, weighing taking her chance and fleeing right now versus taking advantage of the devils long enough to get properly healed before running off. Pragmatism won out over pride and she followed the tired but wholly regenerated Phenex girl through the hallways.

For a moment Raynare allowed herself to experience the old envy that came with not having been lucky enough to win the genetic lottery and inherit her father's power. Thinking of the things she could have done with that kind of power made her gnash her teeth with the loss.

But she brushed it aside, easily tucking the bitterness away in the back of her mind for another day. She had a lot of practice at repression after all. It was practically a requirement for any angel that had seen the face of God before being thrown from Heaven.

"Alright, Akeno to the front." Rias decided as soon as they walked into the kitchen, motioning vaguely at the stools while she stalked over to the pantry. "The blow to the head might have given you a concussion."

The halfbreed frowned mutinously, but when Sasuke made no move to dispute their King's orders she hunched her shoulders and plopped down on the nearest stool. "Bottoms up." She muttered, accepting the thin phial of phoenix tears from her mistress and downing it in one gulp.

Every displeased twitch in the muscles of Akeno's face struck Raynare with surreal familiarity ,and disliking the instinctive comparisons her mind drew she turned away to follow the Ruin Princess into the pantry and pilfer a few bottles of healing elixir for herself.

Her presumption drew a sharp glance from Rias, but the devil girl made no move to protest Raynare's blatant theft of the absurdly expensive tonic.

It must be nice to have such careless luxury the fallen angel scoffed inwardly, downing the salty potion with a hefty swallow. Even uncertain allies could access a ridiculous amount of largess through the Gremory clan.

Feeling the nicks and scratches along her ivory skin sizzle shut in an instant, Raynare rolled her shoulders to test for any lingering aches. One bottle was enough to fully heal and rejuvenate her, but that didn't stop Raynare from smirking at Rias and pocketing the other two. "My thanks." She stated with polite mockery, lifting the ragged hem of her white robe in a curtsy before spinning on her heel and departing the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Raynare didn't make it to the door before she heard the patter of that oafish Gremory boy racing after her.

"Hey wait a sec!"

Rolling her eyes up towards the gilded light fixtures, Raynare folded her arms over her chest and slowly turned to take in the still bruised redhead. At least he'd only come by himself instead of trying to make it a group intervention. "I have things to do. What do you want?"

The aloof irritation seemed to nettle the brat if the pink flush that stole over his cheeks was any indication. Raynare gave it fifty-fifty odds for him to either swallow his juvenile rage or descend into an apoplectic fit.

Sadly, the former won out, and the frustrated redness drained away from Naruto's cheeks. "What I want is some kind of explanation for what you were doing tonight. I don't know about that blonde girl, but she seemed alright, and Issei is a good kid. You can't just try to murder them and expect me to just ignore it. And I don't _care_ if you don't think it's my business. I'm making it my business. So, either _you_ answer me, or I'll go higher up the chain and find someone who will."

Raynare viciously repressed the urge to give the nosy little prick a backhand. Not only would he probably block it, but it would be counterproductive. The last thing she needed was rumors about making an enemy of the Gremory clan floating around the Grigori. Even being Baraqiel's daughter wouldn't save her from censure.

So backed into a corner as she was, Raynare dug the sharp tips of her nails into the pale flesh of her arm until she was sure that little trickles of blood had to be seeping up. "Fine." She conceded, the surrender tasting like iron on her tongue. "I was trying to get rid of Hyoudou because he's the Red Dragon Emperor."

Naruto's face slackened with shock. "Are you fucking serious?" he shot back, running a hand through his hair before shaking his head with exasperated amusement. "Two Longinus in one day? _Fuck me_." But then he remembered who he was talking to, and his voice went hard again. "But that doesn't explain why Issei had to die. He was just some kid, even if he had a powerful Sacred Gear."

"He had to die, because the White Dragon Emperor is Lord Azazel's son." Raynare sneered at the sickening righteousness that Naruto was judging her with. Was this boy really the future of the Gremory clan? His blind morality was going to destroy his family if he ever took the reins. "And they're fated to battle. It was better to get rid of him before he became a threat to Vali."

Scowling at the fallen angel, Naruto cracked his knuckles like he was weighing giving her a bit of a slap around to get his point across. "Fuck fate." Well if he decided to descend into violence like a patriarchal barbarian, Raynare was ready. She hadn't expected any better from a devil anyway. "What about the girl then?"

"Asia?" Raynare cocked an eyebrow at his persistent interest in a nun he'd probably never met before. "Thinking with your dick, are you?" she mused, smirking poisonously when the boy's fists clenched. "Nothing, I wasn't going to kill her at all. It was a strengthening ritual. Or at least it was, until Hyoudou stuck his nose in."

Little white lies never hurt anyone, and Raynare was confident nobody except Lord Azazel and maybe Ajuka Beelzebub had the skill to decipher a ritual as complex as a Sacred Gear extraction at a mere glance. Once she went back and destroyed the last traces of her effort, no one would be able to accuse her of anything. So there was no reason to give the brat a reason to think worse of her. "Now if you're done interrogating me, I have to report to my superiors."

It seemed her little confessional had drained the energy out of Naruto.

Or so she thought, until a hefty chunk of metal was thrown at her face. Catching the onyx pendant before it broke her nose, Raynare narrowed her stormy violet eyes at the bitterly smiling redhead. "What are you doing?" she left off the 'mongrel', but from the way Naruto's mouth tightened Raynare suspected Naruto sensed the insult anyway.

"Next time you get so scared you decide to start murdering innocent people over what might happen one day if half a century, maybe you can cuddle this at night instead of going on a killing spree and then expecting someone else to save your ass."

The edges of the necklace dug into Raynare's palm, smoky tendrils of pure power seeping out between her fingers at the slight touch of her own magical energy. "And what exactly is 'this'?"

"Your boss called it Uplifted Star. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind."


	11. Chapter 11

"Right this way please."

Grayfia threaded her fingers together as she entered under the gold gilded arches that marked the Grigori's seat of administration, every step taken with slow noble poise. Her chic black blazer and pencil skirt enhanced her aristocratic demeanor rather than diminishing it.

A neutral frown pulled at her rouge painted lips, conveying a readiness to listen without judgment but not quite willing to give the benefit of the doubt. It completed her image as an austere ambassador appointed to negotiate on behalf of her government.

All she had to do was try not to react to the half-finished plywood look of the walls or the abandoned half-empty bags of industrial supplies that dotted the hallways.

No doubt the barely functional courthouse would be bulldozed once the colonization of Mictlan moved into full swing. But until then all foreign ambassadors were received at the makeshift shanty house, the smell of oil and sawdust thick in the air as they were asked to wait until someone of high enough rank attended to them.

More than once Grayfia saw a disgruntled diplomat give up and leave, but she persevered with grim determination until at last Shemhazai was ready to speak to her.

"I must admit, I was surprised at how patient you were willing to be." The pale-haired fallen angel noted with a mocking smirk. Even after she'd proceeded through the formal process of begging an audience the Vice-Governor General was treating Grayfia like yet another random supplicant rather than the high-ranking official she was.

It was nothing less than what she had expected honestly. Grayfia tended to represent Gehenna or the clan only during the beginning of negotiations, stepping aside once a devil with more formal authority arrived to sign the dotted line. That wasn't a responsibility that engendered a lot of respect.

But only an idiot forgot that Grayfia was more than a mere diplomat. Shemhazai certainly knew better. He just treated her as an underling for the sake of his own sadistic amusement.

Brushing past the exhausted looking secretary, Grayfia stepped into Shemhazai's office with the expectant gravity of a woman that knew he would never seriously dare to turn her away despite his attempts to harass her.

"You asked for someone to speak with you, and here I am." Grayfia responded chillingly, sweeping her long silver-grey braids over her shoulders as she took the seat across from Shemhazai. The devils and fallen angels existed in a queer sort of limbo, allies too close for dissembling but too distant for true trust. "Now speak quickly. I have more important duties to handle than catering to your ego."

The mocking smile on Shemhazai's face soured, but he didn't protest the demand. Instead he drummed a thoughtful beat on his desk with his fingertips, weighing how exactly he wanted to approach dealing with the wife of the strongest of the Satans. "Officially, the Grigori would like to expand the trade agreement between Mictlan and Gehenna to restrict supply management."

"And unofficially?"

"While we would still like to negotiate that kind of marketing agreement, we are more concerned with the Gremory expansion in the Edo region."

Ah.

Grayfia had been expecting her father-in-law's meddling to land in her lap sooner or later. While the Gremory clan had shared authority with the Beliel clan over Kuoh Town and its surroundings for decades, neither clan had made much of the rights of governance they'd bargained for from the Edo Youkai. They'd ruled in name only until a couple of years past when Zeoticus had decided to buy out the Beliel clan's share in Kuoh and actually make something of the concession.

In truth Grayfia was surprised it had taken so long for someone like Shemhazai to come sniffing around for a 'friendly' chat. Any faction taking action in the human world always created ripples, and tightening control on territory in the mortal realm made bigger waves than almost anything else did.

Still, it was one thing to recognize why the Grigori might start to be concerned. It was another to concede the point. Grayfia had never and would never give an inch without getting something in return. "It seems to me that you've been misinformed." Grayfia denied, leaning back in the surprisingly plush leather armchair Shemhazai had offered her. "While I don't speak for the Duke of Gremory in any official capacity, I can tell you his clan hasn't expanded their territory in the human realm by a single inch in the last twenty years."

Shemhazai just looked unimpressed, his deep purple gaze heavy and unwavering as the devil essentially lied to his face. She was not _technically speaking_ wrong, since the Gremory clan's concessions in the human world were the same size as ever. But most observers would agree centralizing power fit the definition of expansion and pretending it didn't was a statement made in bad faith.

So rather than swallowing the politic legalese, Shemhazai called her out on it. "Come on now. Let's not beat around the bush. We both know that the clan is up to something. First you start sighing agreements with the Kyoto youkai. Then you send the heir and the spare to Kuoh to take contracts at a breathtaking pace. And now half a year later you're moving in another dozen clansmen? As your friend I need to tell you that you're overstepping your bounds, Grayfia."

Narrowing her eyes until they were nothing more than glittering silver slits, Grayfia dug her pointed nails into the polished black leather arms of her chair.

It was true that from the outside the clan was acting suspiciously. Naruto and Rias were searching for and performing contracts at a rate better suited for a commoner trying to desperately gain rank than a pair of noble heirs. Despite Serafall's testimony there was no actual proof that hostile humans with True Longinus and Boosted Gear were in Kuoh. The Gremory clan was making such a naked power play that every day that passed made them new enemies in Edo.

But Zeoticus knew exactly what he was courting, and nothing he was doing was technically against the laws of Gehenna. The only thing Grayfia could do was hope her father-in-law's ruthless recklessness paid off for her son in the end.

"Well." Grayfia responded, her voice thick with ice and a warming promise of venom. " _Friend_. I think you will find on second thought that the clan has broken no laws and violated no agreements. The Edo Youkai willingly ceded their authority over Kuoh to us, as did the Beliel clan. Nowhere in these treaties was our authority within the concession limited. We never at any time gave up these rights and nor did we abdicate our position as the sovereign government. If _certain parties_ take issue with the increasing visibility of our presence, I invite them to get over it."

A frustrated vein started to throb in Shemhazai's temple, and Grayfia watched it pulse as she morbidly wondered if he was about to have an apoplexy. He looked like he wanted to leap across the table and strangle her. "Politics is about more than just the law. There are unwritten expectations you need to uphold and we're not obligated to help you if you so openly decide to stir the pot. This is a road you don't want to go down."

"Believe me now. We are well aware of exactly where this path leads."

"Light damn you, woman. On your head be it."

* * *

January turned out to be tense, to say the least. They'd never seen Hyoudou again after Christmas Eve, and eventually as the weeks rolled on more and more posters went up around town as the kid's distraught parents futilely searched for their only son.

Sasuke empathized with that grief a little. The agony of losing family was worse than anything else he'd ever known, and even when the sharp edges of that pain faded it left permanent scars and a lingering ache. But there was nothing to be done for Hyoudou's parents, and so he put it out of his mind.

"Fuck, my back is killing me." Naruto groaned, slightly stooped over as he hobbled down the slush filled streets. Between the comically depressed look on his face, his sweat-stained orange hoodie, and the fact he seemed to be unable to walk straight, the redhead was a prime target for mockery.

If Sasuke's head didn't feel fit to explode, the Uchiha might have been able to take advantage of the opportunity. As it was his eyes felt like he'd walked through a sandstorm without goggles, with every blink practically dragging dried grit across the sensitized orbs. The illusion spell he'd thrown up to hide the Sharingan from any humans they encountered was the icing on the cake, doubling his fatigue and intensifying the throbbing headache drumming away between his ears.

"Shut up."

"No you."

Sasuke didn't even bother to dignify the weak retort with acknowledgement. Most days ignoring him was just as effective against Naruto as a good insult was. Today however, the Uchiha had other things on his mind.

Like why a suspiciously familiar looking blur of black and silver had just ducked into the local park that was coming up on the right.

Correcting their course, Sasuke and Naruto circled the park. The pair were keenly aware that even if it was high noon with the distant winter sun turning everything into a painfully bright urban wonderland they might not be safe. Their encounter with Cao Cao had proven that.

"That better not be who I think it is." Naruto grumbled once the pair came around to the rear entrance to the park, squinting over the little fenced gate like he'd somehow develop X-ray vision. "We've had enough fucking trouble with the Grigori to last us a decade."

Slipping his hands out of the pockets of his jeans, Sasuke cracked his knuckles before leading the way. "If you're that angry with them, maybe you shouldn't be handing off powerful artifacts to one of their grunt soldiers." It was an old argument that they'd had many times over the past few weeks, and one the was unlikely to be resolved soon.

"Will you shut the fuck up about that?" Naruto growled in the back of his throat, lowering his tones to a quiet rasp. It was one thing to demand the last word in a quarrel, and another to demand that last word where a possible enemy might hear. Petty disagreements aside, they had to present a united front. "I'm giving her one chance to become better than she is. If she wasn't Akeno's sister she wouldn't even get that."

Shaking his head, Sasuke decided to drop it for now. "If you say so." Maybe he had just been too jaded, but Sasuke couldn't see someone like Raynare ever changing. Then again, he couldn't have seen _himself_ as someone that would ever have changed, and Naruto had proven him wrong about that. His friend seemed to have that strange charisma that inspired people to change their ways. Even Konoha hadn't gone to shit until after Naruto was gone.

Food for thought, the Uchiha supposed.

"You're late."

The air was full of the smell of tobacco and primrose, wafting over to the two devils on the gentle breeze. Orange coals flickered at the tip of a cigarette, glowing brighter with every inhale. It brought Sasuke back to memories of blood and gunmetal, and without a second thought he accepted the wordlessly offered smoke, lighting it up and filling his own lungs with ash.

Exhaling the white curls of smoke through his nostrils, Sasuke forced down the instinctive smirk that was twitching at the corners of his lips. "What do you want, Vali?"

"How rude. Did your mother teach you any manners?"

"Leave it, Le Fay."

Despite Vali brushing her off, Sasuke took a second to consider the White Dragon Emperor's new companion. The pouting blonde girl was short and slim, with a warm blue stare and a soft pretty face. In fifteen years or so she'd be breaking hearts. But now, dressed in what looked like magical girl cosplay, she seemed too silly to be a threat.

Not that Sasuke was going to let appearances fool him. If Vali had decided to take her on as a companion, she was either very skilled or had some unusual ability that made her dangerous anyway. The half-devil wasn't the kind of man that had patience for weaklings.

"Listen." Vali addressed both of them equally, demanding their attention with a forceful glare. "I didn't come here to chat with you like an old woman. I came here to give you a warning." The leather of the silver-haired man's jacket creaked as he rolled his shoulders, his sharp gold gaze studying them clinically.

Those were a dragon's eyes, and Sasuke felt an itching between his shoulder blades at their dissecting consideration.

Folding his arms defensively across his chest, Naruto thinned his lips. "Well get on with it. We don't have all day."

Le Fay stuck her tongue out at Naruto for the quip, but Vali ignored it. "You've started training again, and that's good. But you need to do more." He clenched a fist, weighing how much he should say and what he should keep to himself. "As you are now, once Cao Cao comes back – and he will – he'll rip you both to pieces. You need to train hard and train fast. You don't have fifty years to bounce between training and whatever politics crap you want to be involved in. You've been marked."

"How strong?" Sasuke cut in before Naruto could explode with questions, intent on getting the only answer that mattered. While he himself was curious about Vali's sources and why he'd shown up out of the blue, the Uchiha suspected if they pushed him the half-devil would just clam up and refuse to talk.

A sour grimace twisted Vali's face, and he rubbed at his chin like it would reduce the shame that was welling in his gut. "Stronger than me." He eventually admitted, integrity winning over pride. "So don't fuck around."

With that last warning the White Dragon Emperor turned on his heel and strode away, Le Fay trotting along after him like a happy little duckling. She threw curious looks over her shoulder at them, but refrained from calling out or drawing any more attention to herself.

"Well. That was interesting. And terrifying."

Sasuke kept his eyes on the departing pair, carefully watching them vanish from sight and noting how not a single one of the new Gremory clan servants that Naruto's mother had insisted on moving into Kuoh seemed to notice them come and go.

If Cao Cao was even stronger than they were, the only thing stopping the man from waltzing back into town and slitting their throats while they slept was the vague threat of Serafall interfering again.

"It was."

The admission tasted like blood in his mouth.

* * *

"For the last time, no! We are not going to assassinate Silas. It doesn't matter how many times you bring it up, my answer isn't going to change!" Rias sipped at her mug of coffee and made a face at the bitter lukewarm beverage, wondering who had cursed her to have such stubborn and willful servants.

Koneko folded her hands behind her back, her face carefully neutral as she feel silent and let Rias get back to pouring over the maps of Kuoh that were strewn across the desk. She managed to keep quiet for a quarter of an hour before caving and breaking the silence with a quiet barb. "I don't like him."

Crossing off another location for an unreported but still known to be supernatural household, Rias lay down her pen and abandoned her attempts at crafting a registry of all magical beings within the city limits. "You don't like him as a person?" Rias cocked an eyebrow, keeping her voice as cool as a tall glass of water. "Or you don't like the fact that he's my heir for all intents and purposes?"

The deafening silence that followed her implied accusation was all the confirmation Rias needed, and with a low sigh she pressed a soft hand to her forehead before shaking her head. The tumbling crimson strands framing her face gave her a bit of a wild look once she decided to clear things up for her Rook.

"Listen to me. Silas is not and will never be a threat to me as long as he thinks he can marry me and take power over the clan that way. The only person he can be considered an enemy of is Naruto, and even then he's not self-centered enough to throw the whole clan under the bus for the sake of personal power."

Rias held up a finger to forestall any reply Koneko might think to make, steadying herself against the desk and wondering once more why she'd collected such a paranoid group of servants.

Then again, was it really paranoia when most of the time they were actually out to get her?

"Silas has been sent to Kuoh for a job. He has, for the sake of the clan, been assigned here to increase our power projection and ability to enforce order. Even if he has problems with the current line of succession, he's not going to make an issue of it when the prosperity of the clan is at stake. We all have our responsibilities. We will perform ours, and he will perform his. Understand?"

Koneko slouched rebelliously, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jogging pants. The black cotton seemed to swallow her as her hunching brought her face into the shadows of her hood, but after a few seconds of pouting the nekomata grumbled an agreement. "Yes."

Knowing that was the best she was going to get for now, Rias smiled thinly and decided to change topics before Koneko had any time to stew on the rejection. "Good, now – I'd like you to go and scope out this address." She scribbled out a house and street number on a spare scrap of paper. "Don't confront anyone. Just confirm if a family of tengu actually live there and come back. If they do, Naruto and I will be the ones to pay them a visit and make sure they understand how things will be working around here from now on."

In Rias' opinion the new orders she was getting from her father didn't make a lot of sense. Spreading rumors of True Longinus and Boosted Gear helped justify an increased presence of clan servants for the purpose of protection, but they didn't justify such a heavy handed and dramatic shift in governance.

She just hoped her father knew what he was doing.

* * *

Spring came to Kyoto as it always did. The snow slowly trickled away, making way for temperate breezes and gracefully blossoming cherry trees. Life returned to the land with the happy buzzing of insects that leapt from flower to fluttering flower. Even the chakra that trickled in thick ley lines through the city seemed warmer and more alive.

Yasaka wondered if her appreciation for the changing of seasons came from her submersion in the practice of senjutsu or if she was just turning into an overly sentimental old woman.

"Try again."

Kunou's elfin face twisted into a little snarl, and the girl proceeded to tear out a lily by the roots, mutilating the little flower in an attempt to vent her frustration. With her chubby child's cheeks and the smudge of dirt on her nose, the young kitsune seemed more ridiculous than terrifying. The sight was enough to bring a tiny fond smirk to Yasaka's mouth.

Deciding to give Kunou a few minutes to calm herself, Yasaka turned her attention away and looked out over the rest of her garden. The lush vegetation was carefully cultivated in an attempt to mirror the aesthetics of nature, trees of different species mingled freely and were broken only by expanses of sand and water. It was beautiful, but something was niggling at her anyway.

Ah.

The bridge was becoming a touch too weathered and was probably due for a restoration. The kitsune made a mental note of it, shifting her attention back to her panting daughter. "Would you like to continue?" she asked lowly, taking a little sip of her gyokuro blend. The warmth of the tea seeped through the painted porcelain, and when Yasaka took her next mouthful she noted how Kunou eyed the saucer with a hungry expression.

"You can have some if you like." She pointed out dryly, nodding at the half-full kettle. "There's no rush." And there wasn't really. They were beings that lived in terms of centuries. If Kunou didn't manage to learn her next lesson in senjutsu today, there was always tomorrow, and the day after that, and so forth.

Kunou struggled with temptation for a moment before shaking her head with a low sigh, brushing off the strands of grass that were scattered across her white haori. "It's okay." She mumbled, sitting back down on loam and crossing her legs into a half-lotus. Her amber eyes glazed over as she opened herself back up to the flow of chakra in the world.

Clicking her tongue at the girl's stubbornness, Yasaka let her daughter continue her efforts to force a handful of sunflower seeds into full blooming growth. One day that obstinance would lead the younger blonde into trouble. But there was little Yasaka could do about it now. Some lessons had to be harshly learnt. Until then she would just have to watch over her daughter and make sure when Kunou fell it wouldn't be _too_ badly.

Such were the trials of a mother, Yasaka sighed. Raising children was one of the most nerve-wracking things she'd ever done, and if not for the warm glow of pride in her belly when Kunou cleared another hurdle in her training Yasaka would be questioning if it was even worth it.

"Yasaka-sama?"

The kitsune priestess pursed her lips in a displeased frown, setting her tea saucer down with enough force that it wobbled on the tray. "Yes?" she replied testily, twisting and looking up at Kouga with a narrow glittering gold gaze.

Shuffling sheepishly, the black-haired okuri-inu lowered his eyes to the floorboards in submission. "Teiji-sama has arrived earlier than expected."

The unexpected announcement was enough to spoil her afternoon, and Yasaka huffed testily. It seemed the kappa was willing to throw himself on her hospitality as a power play, expecting that she either scramble to satisfy him or accept a reputation as an ill-mannered yokel that was unready to receive visitors.

Unfortunately for him and the Edo Court he represented, Yasaka had made sure her servants were always ready to receive highly-ranked visitors, even if they were unexpected. The Kyoto Court might not be as militarily powerful as Edo, but they were more cultured with a longer history than all of the other youkai courts put together. Dealing with this sort of maneuver was child's play.

"Put him in the east wing, but don't offer him any refreshments until I arrive. I will serve him myself and make sure he knows just how lucky he is." Yasaka decided after a moment of thought, her mind racing through contingencies and considerations until she settled on a relatively low risk plan.

Maybe it wouldn't yield an enormous amount of dividends but at least she'd be able to reduce tensions while pursuing her own ends. She might want the Hiroshima Court to bend their knees, but she didn't want an all-out war with Edo in order to get it.

"In the meantime, summon one of the shrine priests to attend to my daughter's training. She needs another few hours of work today but I can no longer personally supervise. And make sure that whoever you call on is experienced in senjutsu. I don't want to come back here and discover she's become a crazed marauder while I was gone."

"It will be done Miko-sama."

"For your sake it had better be."

* * *

"I still can't believe that you got in the top ten for exam results."

"I'm not as dumb as you think I am." Naruto deadpanned, looking at Ravel through half-lidded eyes.

Tuning them out as they descended into a snarkfest, Akeno sighed and looked over at Yuuto. "Yaki udon?" she prodded hopefully, smirking a bit when he rolled his eyes. "What? It's tasty!"

"Again?" The Knight sighed, loosening his black necktie with one hand while scanning the skyline with a steel-blue stare. "That'll be the third time this week. Are you trying to turn make us all sick of Japanese cuisine forever?"

"Is _trying_ the right word though? I thought I'd already succeeded."

"Don't count your chickens before they've hatched. There's nothing wrong with a bowl of udon." Rias advised sagely, folding her arm across her chest and nodding smugly. It would take a lot more than a loss of variety in meals to alienate the self-professed Japanophile. "That said, I think a tonkatsu would be a better choice for tonight."

Yuuto found his interest piqued, and he turned his full attention to his mistress with a thoughtful frown. "Oh?"

Accepting the loss of attention easily enough, Akeno shifted her grip on the strap of her school bag, hefting the leather satchel lazily over her shoulder. "I know when I'm beaten." She muttered back to Sasuke's scornful huff.

The Uchiha just blinked slowly, his eyelids briefly shuttering down in a way that conveyed his mocking disbelief. Sasuke didn't even need words to convey his disdain, instead writing it into every lazy gesture. It was almost impressive, Akeno mused.

 _Almost_. Which meant it didn't stop her from kicking him in the shin.

"Bitch." Sasuke chuckled lowly, shaking his leg as he walked off the sting.

Their byplay was so artfully casual that no one outside of their little group would be able to pick up on how uncomfortable they both were. They'd see only two young devils teasing each other.

They wouldn't see the way that Akeno's stare skittered off to the left, passing over but still noting yet another one of their so-called guardians. They wouldn't perceive the bloody tint to Sasuke's coal-dark eyes, the Sharingan leaking through the illusion disguise as he catalogued everything about their surroundings.

They were truly a work of paranoid art in motion.

After Grayfia had heard about the young devils' close encounter with True Longinus she had insisted on better protection and an increase in the clan's presence in the area. When class resumed in January there had only been two more clansmen and their peerages assigned to govern and fortify Kuoh. But two had quickly become four, and then eight, and eventually fifteen purebloods running around Kouh Town.

Wary eyes were always watching Rias and Naruto along with their peerages, reporting back every single scratch and scrap to Gehenna. It wasn't _threatening_ per se, but it was definitely _annoying_. Sasuke had to court Rias much more carefully, and more than once Naruto had been forced to cut off his romance with his future wives out of fear of voyeurism.

After several months of the smothering attention, Akeno felt the need to break down in the middle of the street and scream her head off. She could only last so long in a pressure cooker of foreign expectation, and four months of pretending to be a thoughtless demure little airhead was pushing her limits.

It was only the knowledge that enough was _enough_ that kept her sane. Rias' peerage as a whole had managed to scrape through the end of Kuoh Academy's first year exams. None of them would have to come back for make-up classes or hand in late assignments. They were free for at least a few weeks, and if Akeno decided she wanted to streak butt naked across the grounds of Starling Hall no one could stop her.

"Listen." Sasuke slipped in over the storm that was Akeno's internal consciousness, whisper soft since they were speaking publicly in broad daylight. His mouth was thin and pale pink as he pursed his lips. The harsh curl to his brows conveyed his pure certainty, and Akeno knew that no amount of half-hearted teasing would bar his way once he settled on a course of action.

Even Rias, despite her formal position as King in their circle, would yield before Sasuke's force of will. "We have even less time than we thought we did. Naruto and I have been beating the piss out of each other for a few months, but it isn't enough. Every single one of us - even Gasper - need to toughen up. Can I count on you?"

Akeno breathed deep, the dark violet crystal of her gaze deepening. She honestly wasn't sure why he felt the need to ask. Beneath the simple sounds of words and half-formed thoughts they were the same. When Akeno looked into Sasuke's face she saw herself, harsher and full of steel, but still full of _herself_. They _could_ be siblings – and considering Ophis' seeming lack of awareness or consideration – they might _actually_ share blood on the bastard side of the blanket.

And if they weren't, sometimes it was enough to remember that they had each other despite all the complications.

Rias had pulled her out of death and shadow, giving her a home to belong in. Then Sasuke had framed that world and given it a reason to exist.

So even if they weren't smooth parts of a whole, bred and born in the same womb, Akeno didn't think she was able to deny them anything. Not her sweat, offered up in an attempt to become stronger. Not her blood, given in an attempt to keep them alive. Not even her heart, hidden in an attempt to keep their love simple.

"You know you can." Her oath weighed heavy on the high, but Akeno was determined to bear everything.


	12. Chapter 12

Their second year at Kuoh Academy began like the first. They attended classes, finished their assignments, and allowed themselves to be railroaded into half a dozen school clubs while holding themselves aloof from the human social scene. It should have been simple and stress free, but the innocent relaxation that had defined those early days was gone.

School had become less of an escape from the expectations of Gehenna and more of a prison. Even Sona Sitri seemed less satisfied than she'd used to be, with thinner smiles and tired eyes. Yuuto wondered if she was regretting essentially forcing them into attending the academy as the price of her compliance with the new political order in their conspiracy.

In the end, it didn't matter a whole lot to him. The blond Knight kept his head down, performing every contract that came his way and doing his best to scrabble up the ladder of fame and fortune. His training suffered sometimes but building a reputation and accumulating favours mattered more than another hour fiddling with Sword Birth.

" _Oh_! You're here! I didn't think it was going to work this time. But I suppose third time is the charm, as the Westerners say."

Yuuto smiled politely, folding his blazer over his arm as he scanned over the basement he'd been summoned to. Half a dozen partially completely summoning arrays were drawn over the concrete walls in thick white chalk, each containing some fatal flaw that let the young devil know he was dealing with an amateur spellcaster rather than someone with any real knowledge or skill at magecraft.

Most likely his summoning was little more than a happy accident for the wide-eyed self-professed witch that was peering at him through her round brass spectacles. The summoning that had called him hadn't even contained any specific information relating to what she wanted, instead giving garbled bits of personal data and an overwhelming sense of curiosity.

It was enough to brighten his blue-grey eyes with a sparkle of amusement. Somehow, he had the feeling that he was going to finish this job and go home with a ridiculous story to tell his friends.

"What can I do for you, Miyashita-san?" Yuuto prodded, widening his friendly grin just enough to show his perfect white teeth. Despite his Kuoh Academy uniform he looked like a knight out of a fairy tale, and he _knew_ it.

That was his job after all. They all had masks they put on in public. Rias was the austere noblewoman. Akeno flirted just enough to arouse interest but not enough to promise anything. Sasuke was the silent looming presence that guaranteed unpleasant things for anyone that wanted to go against them. And Yuuto was the perfect prince – handsome, unfailingly chivalrous, and always ready to surrender a kind word or gesture.

Sometimes the stress of constantly pretending got to him, but he didn't let it keep him from keeping up the pretense. He'd chosen this role for himself, to try and become something more than that scared rude little orphan that Rias has pulled out of the snow all those years ago. He wasn't going to fail now because of some silly human with delusions of grandeur.

Miyashita Maaya fiddled with the little plastic buttons of her dark green blouse, biting her lower lip as she absorbed the fact that she'd actually succeeded in summoning a supernatural being. "Well, um." She began haltingly, her hazel eyes large and bright behind the polished lens of her glasses. "I was wondering if you could tell me about Holy Swords."

The reminder came like a knife carved out of ice to the gut, his innards cramping and twisting along with the frigid wave racing along his nerves. Yuuto kept one hand behind his back, clenching his fist until his fingernails bit into the soft pink flesh of his palms to let hot droplets of blood seep out. "Why do you want to know?" he deflected despite knowing he should have just forced down the memory of days on the steel examination table and taken the contract at face value.

Maybe the middle-aged brunette could sense that that Yuuto was wound tighter than a coiled spring. Miyashita might have been only human, but even the most ignorant creature could feel the instinct of mortal peril prickling over their skin. Or maybe she was just awed by the physical perfection that was common to devils. In either case, it took an agonizingly long minute for her to reply before she managed to offer up her story like a sacrifice.

"I own a café downtown and today I saw one of those Western priests come in. He didn't talk much - just ordered his latte and spent a couple of hours at one of the corner seats reading through his files. But when I brought him a refill on the house I _saw_ them." Miyashita threaded her fingers together over her chest, practically vibrating with glee as she thought back to that morning. "Diagrams and descriptions of Holy Swords! It was the first time I've ever encountered the occult in real life. I just had to try a summoning myself and ask for some answers!"

She was just a hobbyist, Yuuto realized. In the end Miyashita was just an odd little woman that probably had three cats roaming around her house to keep her company while she indulged in weird little curiosities. There was no real thought or malice that went into her explorations of the supernatural world. It was even possible that she'd never honestly considered summoning a devil even possible until meeting her mystery priest.

Miyashita had nothing to do with Galilei or any other horrific experiments centered around those damn swords. So Yuuto shoved down the stinging taste of vomit that was riding the back of his tongue and strangled his urge to open her stomach right then and there. "I can answer a few questions." He offered instead. "For the right price."

A flicker of anxiety rippled across Miyashita's face, drawing her dark eyebrows together with apprehension. "What kind of price?" she prodded cautiously, probably realizing for the first time that she might have gotten tangled up in something she wasn't prepared to deal with. There was a _reason_ that human folklore was full of tales about malevolent demons.

Luckily for her, Yuuto wouldn't have wanted her soul even if it was still legal to bargain for it. "I'll tell you what I know about Holy Swords." He allowed, pursing his lips sourly at the thought of having to think back on the rants Galilei had frequently gone on while Yuuto was his prisoner. But he needed to know about this supposed priest more than he needed an evening free of nightmares. "But in exchange I want you to tell me everything you know about this priest you met. Who he is, what he looks like, what he's doing in Kuoh. Any little details you can remember."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

The way Miyashita practically sagged in relief would have been a bit humorous under other circumstances, but Yuuto was too tangled up inside to find any particular entertainment from it. Instead he just watched as the woman smiled widely and bounced around the room, collecting little bits of scrap paper and a couple of pens.

"I'm going to take some notes, if you don't mind." She tittered, dragging over a little end table and then kneeling beside it on the concrete. "I'm ready."

Inhaling deeply despite the heavy scent of dust and must that choked the air, the blond mentally fortified himself. Then he began, forcing a dispassionate drawl. "In order to understand Holy Swords, you need to first understand what's been commonly defined as the 'light attribute'. It's the ability that gods have that enable them to generate a certain type of energy. Beings that were created by gods usually also have the light attribute. It also sometimes – rarely – possessed by humans, although no one has ever really discovered why that is."

The lens of Miyashita's glasses reflected an opaque sheen, yellow like the dim electric lights she had strung across the roof of her cellar. It prevented Yuuto from being able to see her eyes, but he could tell she was enthralled simply by the way she frantically scribbled out fragmented shorthand on her yellowed sheets of parchment.

"I see, I see." She muttered to herself.

Quirking the corner of his mouth into a vicious smirk directed at the top of her head, the devil continued. "Beings that have light attribute in them can be _harvested_ , for lack of a better word, in order to create light attribute crystals, These crystals can then be used to project divine magic but are more commonly used to forge Holy Swords, which then are used to project divine magic."

When Yuuto took a second to breathe, he realized that at some point that careful neutrality he'd tried to hold onto had melted away. Instead, his voice rang clear and passionate. Yuuto sounded like _him_ , and he hated himself for it. That realization was enough to almost make him turn tail and run off, abandoning the contract.

But he was almost at the end, and he'd been promised information.

"However, simply having a light attribute crystal or possessing a Holy Sword isn't enough. They need to be woken – to _resonate_ with a living creature that already has the light attribute. Once this is done the Holy Sword and its wielder exist in a feedback loop, each amplifying the ability of the other to project divine magic. If you don't already possess the light attribute, then you can't wield a Holy Sword."

The low scratching sound of Miyashita's pen across the pages slowed and then trickled to a stop, the brunette chewing at the rounded plastic top of her pen with a pensive expression on her face. On the one hand she was still obviously curious, blinking up at Yuuto with the fixated gaze of an owl. But on the other the devil had technically met his end of the bargain and pushing for more might be dangerous. "Oh." She eventually murmured for lack of a better thing to say. "But could someone have the light attribute crystals implanted in them to let them use Holy Swords?"

Yuuto crushed the sudden red-hot desire to murder that rose up in him, swallowing down the tide of bitter bile surging up his throat. He was a Knight of the House of Gremory. He'd laid down his sword and sworn oaths on it. No matter how poisonously angry he was, Yuuto had to remain in control at all times and not take out his rage on some fucking human that didn't know anything about how the world truly worked.

He couldn't quite tame the fury, but Yuuto banked it enough to force out through gritted teeth. "No. It doesn't work like that. Now, I'd like to hear about that priest of yours, if you don't mind."

* * *

The street lamps burned a dull amber, casting long shafts of golden light and carving out strange shadows on the faces of the squat square suburban houses. It was captivating, in a queerly postmodern way, and Sasuke wondered vaguely if Koneko would appreciate the aesthetic. It seemed to be right up her alley.

"You don't have to wait out here with me. I'm sure it's warmer inside."

"It's fine." Sasuke replied instantly, slipping his hands in his pockets and leaning back against the cherry red baluster holding up the front patio overhang. It was only August, so the summer night's warmth was still going strong, and the Uchiha wasn't going to accept such an obvious attempt to get rid of him.

They'd been waiting out front for hours, and Sasuke was prepared to wait until morning if he had to for Yuuto to make his slothful way back home. The Knight might be taking irritatingly long for his supposed evening stroll, but Sasuke would be a poor friend if he abandoned the blond to a sudden unexpected blast from the past.

Sasuke knew _exactly_ how it felt to have a face from years ago show up out of the blue and shake up the comfortable niche he'd carved out for himself. He wouldn't condemn the people he cared about to that if he could help it.

"Alright, young man."

Repressing the urge to snort with amusement and confess exactly how _young_ he actually was in comparison to the man, Sasuke let the conversation die a graceless death. The night continued to wear on, the darkness deepening without even a sliver of pale moonlight to cut the shadows.

By the time Yuuto made his way home, his straw-gold hair hanging in his eyes as he slouched his way up the street, the evening was near to a moonless midnight.

The Knight didn't look surprised to see them, just settling his steel-blue stare on Sasuke before slowly shifting it over to study the priest. "What are you doing here, Roland?" he asked tiredly, his pale pink lips thinning with restrained discontent.

Roland didn't seem at all deterred by the lack of an enthusiastic welcome. Behind the square frames of his glasses his verdant green eyes brightened with warmth, and for a moment he was ready to jump up off the doorstep and wrap up the orphan boy he'd once looked after in a crushing hug. But after a second he thought better of it, remaining seated and distinctly nonthreatening.

Or rather, he was as _nonthreatening_ as a tall muscled exorcist of the Church in the company of devils could be. "I was passing through town and I heard a few rumors from an onikuma visiting from Sapporo. So I decided to take a gamble and see if the 'Kiba Yuuto' she spoke about was really the same person as my little Isaiah."

The sound of Yuuto's old name fell like a blow, and his fingers twitched into a half-fist before the swordsman reasserted his sense of iron self-control. He took in a short breath, shaking his head before staring at the exorcist with a piercing glance. "Why are you _here_ though?" he demanded, a thousand questions underlying that one clear query.

Why, after so long, had the priest sought him out? Why was he speaking to Yuuto like he was still that innocent little boy he'd once known, even though both of them knew Isaiah was long gone? Why had he come back into Yuuto's life like a hurricane, upending the careful balance between his old and new lives that he'd so carefully contained?

Roland's soft grin melted away like butter in the sun, leaving him looking tired and aged. It threw into sharp clarity just how much older the man had become since Yuuto had last seen him. There were crow's feet and lines around his mouth that hadn't been there ten years ago. The short blazing copper curls that crowned Roland's head were shot through with the odd strand of grey. Even the skin of the exorcist's hands seemed drawn thin and weathered.

Time took its toll on all men.

"Alright." Sasuke cut in, his tone shredded and raspy and _awkward_. Glittering ebony eyes inspected the mortal creases that had been worn down into Yuuto's face over the past few hours. "It's time to move this conversation inside, unless you'd rather stand around until the rain comes?"

* * *

The door creaked slightly as it closed, and Rias rolled over in the dark and cracked one brilliant teal eye open. "It's been handled?" she questioned lazily, tracking her Pawn as the man slipped into a set of plain black silk pajamas.

"Yeah." Sasuke confirmed quietly, leaving the button at the throat open before circling around the bed and sliding in behind Rias. "Yuuto's back and I put the priest up in one of the guest rooms."

"Good. Ideally, they'll settle their personal issues quickly so that Roland can be on his way. I won't put him out on the streets, but it would be more convenient if he wasn't here long enough for questions to be asked."

Grunting a low agreement, Sasuke shuffled right up against Rias and threw his arm around the redhead's waist. The matter was settled for now, and neither of them really felt like beating a dead horse. It was too late for that kind of wasted effort, and Rias didn't want to spoil the rest of her evening. She only had a handful of hours before morning and wanted to get what she could out of them.

They were taking a risk sleeping in the same bed, and with her sheer green negligee there was no possibility that anyone that stumbled in wouldn't conclude they were in some way intimate. Discovery would lead to severe punishment. _Rationally_ speaking they shouldn't be gambling their futures on the expectation that no one would walk in on them.

But Sasuke had always been reckless with his own life, and Rias' heart wasn't made of iron. In this house, surrounded by friends that had always kept their secret, she could unbend and accept affection. She _wanted_ to even. The thought of having to endure decades or centuries before Sasuke could legally embrace her was too much to bear. She might be a devil, but even that perspective had its limits.

"You're thinking too much again." Sasuke murmured, his breath warm and his lips tickling the back of Rias' neck as he spoke. "I can hear your brain sizzling from here."

A gentle laugh escaped from Rias' lips, and despite her initial determination to sleep for the rest of the night the redhead found herself rolling over to face him. Nose to nose as they were she could see the individual strands of his eyelashes fluttering, dark and feathery like a crow's wings. "You know I can't help it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes with fond exasperation. "You're going to end up with an aneurysm before you're thirty." He clicked his tongue with exaggerated worry. "You should try a therapist. You seem like a woman that could use a few hours of talking about your repressed childhood traumas."

Very deliberately Rias curled her fingers, letting the tips of her nails bite into the skin of Sasuke's forearm. "I don't think _you're_ someone qualified to point out my imaginary issues." She sniffed haughtily. "You have an Oedipus complex the size of a small planetary satellite. Which makes you a fit reflection of Akeno considering she has an Electra complex of similar proportions."

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Instead he ended up shutting his jaw with a little click, looking profoundly disturbed as he reflected on the implications of Rias' little barb. "Shut up." He eventually offered in a sour tone.

"Aww, you're pouting! It's so cute."

"I am _not_."

Rias just laughed in his face, high and tinkling like the sound of a bell.

Closing his eyes dismissively, Sasuke wordlessly told her that he wasn't going to put up with any more of her nonsense. Though the message was a bit spoiled by the way his lips twitched with his own reluctant amusement.

Once the tickle of humor drained away, the pair found themselves laying in thoughtful silence. Despite the light-hearted teasing, Rias' little barb had brought up a point that neither of them had been willing to address clearly before. But it was something they needed to speak about sooner rather than later, so Rias wet her lips and took the plunge.

"It might not be so bad." The redhead pointed out cautiously, _delicately_ ; watching as Sasuke opened his eyes to study her with the careful tense stare of a hawk. "If she was involved in this." Rias was being oblique, but she knew that Sasuke was aware of what exactly she was referring to.

Rias liked to consider herself pragmatic. Her parents might have indulged her when she was a little girl, but that didn't mean that once she grew older she stayed ignorant. Gehenna had certain _expectations_ , and Rias had come to acknowledge those expectations years ago. There was only so long she could live in a society that propagated a narrative that alpha male-centered harems were the only ethical romantic arrangement before she had to bite the bullet and come to terms with it.

Naruto wanted to change the government of Gehenna - that was difficult enough. Changing a thousand-year-old cultural system that had been reinforced by centuries of state education and propaganda was even more so. And even if they _could_ change the moral principles devils lived by, Rias wasn't sure if from a purely objective standpoint that they should.

Natural jealousy aside, Rias could see the strategic value of a hyper-Darwinian system. So if she absolutely had to share, she would prefer it to be with a woman that she herself desired on some level. If absolutely limited Rias would choose Sasuke every time, but if given a buffet of options she couldn't help but wonder what a golden sinner's lightning would taste like on her tongue.

"No." Sasuke declared, the entire syllable coated with resolute steel. His entire mien was dark with denial, eyebrows drawn tight and angry. It was a judgmental expression, laying out the last iron bones of Sasuke's human morality. The Uchiha had never been particularly virtuous to begin with, but the few rules he'd clutched to were those he hoped were unbending and unyielding for eternity.

What a tired façade her lover wore, built out of guilt and the dusty remnants of decades old memory.

The only thing he proved to Rias in that moment was that underlying the veneer of steel, Sasuke's soul was still made of rustable iron, and he just needed to be molded by careful tender hands. Preferably _her_ hands, rather than the uncaring hands of society or Ophis' obsidian talons and their unknowable motivations.

Fidelity above everything warmed Rias' heart every time it was sworn, but she couldn't help but wonder when that promise would fall through. _When_ , and not _if_ – since only a Sasuke that wallowed in anonymity and political obscurity would ever be able to honestly uphold such an oath.

The very second her Pawn publicly admitted exactly what Ophis had given him was the moment he was offered dozens of broken mares to breed with. The purest blood ran in Sasuke's veins, seething with the Sharingan; and Gehenna would be desperately hungry for it.

All devils were in the end meat, offered up on the altar to preserve Gehenna.

Rias would be lying if it didn't make her angry, but she wasn't Naruto or Sasuke. She didn't assume she could so fundamentally change the world or that idealism would triumph over expediency. So instead she just grinned at her love. "If you say so."

Then she rolled back over, showing her shoulders and her silence for the moment. The seed had been planted. Maybe nothing would come of it, or maybe one day Rias would be able to know the flavor of Akeno's mouth.

Eventually Rias might have to accept half a dozen hearts into their bed, but if she did she'd make damn sure that those hearts were ones she chose for herself.

* * *

"Oh, come on, come on! No one can say no to honey nut Cheerios!"

Koneko glared down at the soggy bran loops floating in her bowl of milk and decided _yes_ , she really did want to refuse the tasteless loops. Given the choice between an empty stomach full of whole milk and a stomach bloated with industrialized cereal she would pick the former every time.

"I'd like a little bit of brown sugar." The nekomata demurred vaguely, poking at her bowl as she tried to avoid seeming overly picky. While she wasn't too bothered by the thought of hurting Naruto's feelings, she didn't want to deal with the fake tears and ranting that refusing to eat would get her.

Wood banged on wood as Naruto raged around the kitchen, throwing open cupboards and rooting through them with an eager grin stretched across his mouth. "Right now I'm not finding anything." He admitted, squinting at a half-empty box of cinnamon sugar. "Do you want a bit of sweet and spicy? It's not perfect but it's better than nothing."

"It's fine. Give it here."

"Shut up and get the toast ready." Sasuke rumbled as he swept into the kitchen, massaging the palm of one hand into his black bruised eyesockets. The Uchiha had been up late into the night waiting for Yuuto, and the exhaustion showed. "And someone get me a glass of milk."

"Get it yourself you lazy prick."

Sasuke sneered at Naruto but gave it up as a lost cause without any further fanfare and wandered over to the toaster. "Did anyone feed Gasper?" he asked the room at large, getting a negative grumble from both King and Rook in response. The Uchiha clicked his tongue at that, tossing another couple of pieces of bread in the toaster.

Sighing in defeat, Koneko took up her spoon and dug in.

"So what's the story with the old man?" Naruto prodded bluntly, his words muffled by the thick ball of bread he was struggling to choke down. A few chunks of half-chewed food sprayed from his mouth as he spoke, prompting identical frowns of disgust from Sasuke and Koneko.

"Close your damn mouth." The Uchiha muttered, buttering his toast with sharp efficient movements. "And not much. They had a little meet and greet and then toddled off to bed." That was understatement if Koneko had ever heard one, but she was graceful enough not to shove her nose in demanding more details about Yuuto's private life.

The need to place a concrete wall between past and present was one that Koneko intimately understood. More than once she'd been reminded of Kuroka's massacre and murder, and only by bottling up those feelings and burying them was she able to function. If Yuuto needed to kill his own past so he could walk into the future with them, that was fine. Koneko didn't need to ask questions. Whatever nonsense Roland was kicking up was none of her business.

Naruto took a hefty sip of water, his mouth pouting as he forced down the half-mangled lump of toast he'd been chowing down on. "Is that it?" he whispered, coughing wetly and pounding his fest against his chest in an effort to clear the grain that had trickled down the wrong whole. "Is that it?"

"Does it matter?"

Sasuke's question seemed posed as a defensive poisonous challenge. Did it really matter what Yuuto and Roland talked about? How was it any of Naruto's business in the first place? Just because he _could_ didn't mean Naruto had to stick his nose in everything. Sometimes people needed to work through their issues on their own.

Or so Koneko felt anyway. Maybe she was just projecting her own feelings on the whole issue.

Years ago Naruto would have exploded into a ranting fit at the implication that one of his friends might not actually need his help. But time and maturity had beaten their lessons into him. Sometimes it was better to fight, and sometimes it was better to yield. He didn't need to have the last word every single time.

So this time the redhead just shrugged idly, lowering his eyes to the table and languidly buttering his next slice of toast. The sudden silence was deafening, but none of them dared to break it when the currents of tension were still vibrating through the air like a tightly strung piano wire.

Eventually that wire did snap, but not because of anything the young devils did.

Footsteps pounded down the stairwell, slamming out a desperate frantic beat as they descended and whirled around the corner. By the time Roland burst into the kitchen with his chest heaving and his face grey, three pairs of curious eyes greeted him.

"Have any of you seen Yuuto this morning?"

Sasuke turned from the toaster, his ink-dark eyebrows drawn tight as he leaned back against the counter and studied the priest with a dissecting gaze. "No." he declared shortly, a rough growl to his voice that demanded Roland spit out _exactly_ what was going on, and quickly.

Rather than immediately cave into the Uchiha's bristling hostility, Roland hunched his shoulders and looked hopefully to the other two devils. Only when they also shook their heads in denial did the man sag down in defeat, plucking his spectacles from his nose and polishing them in a nervous gesture. "I brought a briefcase from work here with me last night, but now it's gone, and he wasn't in his bedroom when I looked in. So I thought…"

The vague deflecting was the last straw that broke the camel's back for Naruto. After being nettled and needled at by his two friends and having his concern brushed off like it was worthless, he'd had enough. "Stop fucking beating around the bush and spit it the fuck out, old man." He grit out through clenched teeth, the angry grip of his hands shattering the mug of milk he'd been holding into a dozen wet fragments.

Naruto's words were thrown down like a gauntlet, clattering to the kitchen tiles between them and summoning the focus of everyone that heard them. Koneko could hear the threat in his tone, and below that the earnest pleading.

Maybe it was the promise of violence, or maybe it was the request for pity that moved him. Koneko couldn't be sure. But in the end the exorcist broke, hunching over like a man that aged ten years in ten seconds. "I suppose that it wasn't much of a secret anyway." Roland murmured more to himself than to the rest of them, probably trying to justify spilling his guts before the fact.

Koneko herself was tempted to tell the ginger-haired human to get on with it, but she set her tight fists in her lap, striving for patience. More than one hunt had failed in the last instant because of a hunter that wasn't able to wait for the right moment. She wouldn't be one of them; dropping piercing barbs that made the priest clam back up before he offered up the truth.

"For the last few years I've been trying to locate and bring to justice a _particular_ criminal." Roland began haltingly, one hand drifting up to play with his rosary in an unconscious prayer for aid. "He's the sort of man that has committed sins and been excommunicated for them. But what sets him apart is his clever cruelty, his trail of atrocity, and his _unusual_ interest in Holy Swords. After so long looking for him I've gathered enough information to have a good guess at where he is now. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

Koneko supposed she should have been thankful that the priest was so vague with his descriptions. If she hadn't been in the know, she wouldn't really understand that gravity of what he was telling them, and Yuuto's privacy would be preserved. She supposed she should be thankful on the Knight's behalf.

But the nekomata did know, so when she swallowed it was like she was choking down a thick lump of sharp-edged thankless glass.


	13. Chapter 13

"Look, it's fine. Just don't tell anyone that we're gone and I'll call you in four hours. If you don't hear from us in eight then discreetly let my father know. Tell anyone else that's looking for me that I've gone to a convention and I won't be back until Friday."

Roland watched listlessly as Rias Gremory chattered to her nephew on a payphone and wondered if he was making a huge mistake. It was bad enough that Isaiah had stolen his notes on Galilei and fled into the night with them. Did he really need to compound that by taking the Gremory clan's princess and her Pawn along on the hunt?

If he had more integrity, Roland would bear the burden alone and find a way to bring Isaiah home and Galilei to justice on his own. But he was just a man, full of regrets and mortal weakness, and he couldn't quite force himself to reject the support of Isaiah's new family.

Even if it meant he was going against the spirit of the orders he'd been handed down from Heaven.

May God have mercy on his soul.

"Alright, alright. Talk to you later." Plastic clicked as Rias dropped the handset back in its cradle. She turned away from the payphone with a languid sigh, slipping her hands in the pockets of her ivory long coat and stepping closer to Sasuke and Roland with a click of her boots. "That's settled then."

The dark-haired Uchiha just grunted in acknowledgement, warily scanning out once more over Hakata Bay. Roland disapproved of the boy's casual rudeness, but Rias seemed to just find it amusing so the priest decided not to comment on it. There was no reason to going looking for trouble. "Are you sure Yuuto came this way?" he asked instead.

Rias pursed her lips in thought. "I wouldn't say that I'm entirely sure." She admitted, reflexively checking the digital clock blinking on the ticket machine when a speck of pale paint appeared on the ocean horizon. "But he wouldn't have travelled by air or by sorcery. It would have been more expensive, more difficult, and more noticeable. The easiest way to get to Jeju without questions being asked is by ferry. There are less human minds to confound this way and it's not as stringently patrolled as the other routes."

"So if he hadn't come through here, he still probably took a ferry from somewhere."

"Precisely."

Roland wasn't entirely satisfied with her reasoning, but he recognized that Rias Gremory probably knew Isaiah better than he did at this point. If the reckless hothead he'd raised in the orphanage had become so totally different, she and her peerage would have first-hand experience with him.

"It's coming." Sasuke cut in blandly, observing the blocky white ship that cut through the rolling waves and moored right up along the concrete wharf.

Rusted steel clanged as the boat floated into position, its gangway mating with the industrial protrusion that was bolted down into the pavement of Hakata's dock. A few early arrivals milled their way over to form the queue, but it would take some time for the majority of the ferry's passengers to line up and get ready to embark.

"Should we go?" Roland wondered, eyeing the uniform clad sailors that wandered around the ship's deck cautiously. He disliked fiddling with the memories of fellow human beings on principle, and the idea that he'd have to lean on devil sorcery to get through customs undetected wasn't sitting well with him.

Rias hummed, considering the slowly gathering humans with a clinical look. "Not quite yet, I think. We'll wait and take advantage of the rush to get on-board without being noticed."

* * *

They drifted into Jeju after the sun had fallen and turned the sea into a sheet of rippling black glass. The scent of brine and pollution hung heavy in the air as they disembarked, tossing up a few minor illusion spells that allowed them to blend into the crowd of human tourists.

Sasuke accepted the inconvenience of it all without complaint. He'd rather spend a day bouncing between one ferry and the next than incur the notice of suspicious yogwe. Gehenna had very few ties to the various factions in Korea, so they couldn't expect anything but questions and hostility if they were noticed.

At least the priest would be able to move around without attracting too much notice. Unlike Gehenna the Church had a strong presence in Korea and an exorcist wasn't such an uncommon sight. So as much as it galled Sasuke to rely on someone that was basically a stranger, he could swallow back the irritation long enough to find Yuuto and drag the impulsive idiot back home.

Which was depressingly nostalgic now that he thought about it. It was like Sasuke was reliving a bizarre reflection of his own life, with Yuuto in his place and Sasuke in Naruto's. Would Yuuto walk down the same dark path he'd once trod on, throwing his anger at everyone and everything?

That possibility leant a sense of urgency to the search.

"We'll wander the city and keep our eyes out." Sasuke decided, stepping close to Rias while he met Roland's surprised steely stare. "Stop by the parish and see what they have to say." He was demanding something from the exorcist that he had no right to expect, but Sasuke was so far beyond caring about social niceties that he didn't even hesitate.

Yuuto was his chosen brother. Even if it was only by adoption, Sasuke couldn't leave the boy to struggle against the world by himself. He'd drown in the isolation in the same way that Sasuke once had if they didn't find him soon.

The corners of Roland's lips curled up with an air of amused tolerance, but the priest agreed easily enough. "Alright. But please don't be any longer than a couple of hours, and if you hear anything about Galilei come and find me right away. He's a dangerous man that you shouldn't try to take on without preparation."

"Of course." Rias demurred diplomatically as she laid her long pale fingers against the inside of Sasuke's forearm. It was a soft gesture that quietly invited Sasuke's silence. "We'll be careful."

Roland peered at the two devils through the round lens of his glasses, his eyes narrow and unsure. "Good luck." He eventually told them, visibly reluctant and unwilling to abandon what he probably saw as a pair of children on the streets of Korea. But in the end he caved and turned away to reconnect with the agents of the Church.

"You didn't have to do that." Sasuke pointed out lowly, tracking the ginger exorcist's back as the man stalked up the street and vanished around the corner. He wasn't a crazed dog or an arrogant buffoon that would fly off the handle just because someone had implied he might not be able to take on an obese old man.

Rias just smirked at him. "Is this your way of telling me that you _don't_ want me to touch you?"

"Keep touching as long as your heart desires then."

* * *

A brass bell rattled angrily, declaring that it was time for lunch break. It was an irritating little sound, but after a year and half of putting up with it Ravel had gotten used to it. She wasn't a fan of attending a human school, but Ravel did what she had to do.

The blonde lurched to her feet, wincing at the phantom soreness between her thighs. She'd never admit it to anyone, but Naruto had fucked her into the mattress so many times last night that she could barely walk. Her regenerative capabilities could deal with a lot, but they didn't make her immune to discomfort.

Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to regret any of it. Ravel had gotten exactly what she wanted after spending so much time chasing the redhead. The only dark spot was the persistent presence of Valerie Tepes, but even that was slowly becoming bearable.

Limping out of the classroom, Ravel keep a steadying hand against the wall as she rounded the corner and sought out her fiancé's classroom. Normally she preferred to lean on Rias, but with the Ruin Princess running off to Korea Ravel didn't have a lot of options. She either had to sit around by herself pretending to care about the humans who tried to befriend her, or struggle with Valerie for Naruto's limited attention.

"Good afternoon Phenex-san."

Ravel blinked at the address, brushing her loose golden curls out of her face so she could squint at her fellow second year.

Messy blond spikes poked out here and there from the boy's skull, every follicle seething with unconscious mutiny. Genshirou Saji had been a devil for years, but between his human childhood and Sona's gentle indulgence the Pawn had barely managed to keep both feet in Gehenna. Everything from the way he spoke to the way he dressed practically screamed his human heritage.

"Afternoon." Ravel greeted shortly, her lip curling back as the reincarnated devil stood next to her as they waited for her King to show up. "If you have a message I can pass it along." She offered coolly, frowning faintly as the flow of humans trickling through the halls intensified.

Saji smiled easily, shrugging one shoulder as he leaned back against the dented drywall. "It's fine. Sitri-san just wanted to speak to Gremory-kun for a few minutes, and I don't mind leading the way since we're going to the same place anyway."

Humming dismissively, Ravel turned her attention to studying the chiseled contours of her nails. The subdued pink lacquer was beginning to flake and seemed due for a fresh coat. Maybe if she had an hour to kill once the school day was over she'd take care of it. Perhaps she'd even take a bit of time for a professional manicure.

"Hello, hello." Naruto barked out cheerily, a cheap bento tucked under his arm as he pushed through the throng to meet up with the two young devils. "How's it hanging Saji?".

If not for the way the redhead confidently invaded her personal space, slinging a heavy arm across her shoulders, Ravel wouldn't have even realized that Naruto was wound tighter than a spring. That tension spread to her like an infection, and she found herself wondering what exactly Genshirou wanted.

"Everything is pretty good. Sitri-san just wanted me to let you know that she'd like it If you stopped by sometime before the break was over." Saji informed the Gremory heir, his voice light with friendly assurance. A couple of years in Gehenna hadn't totally killed the blond's innocence, and that unguarded openness showed.

Naruto agreed without delay, and half a minute later the trio of disguised devils were taking the shortest route to the Student Council office - plodding up the cramped back stairwell of Kuoh Academy.

"I don't think she has any appointments." Saji muttered into the still air, one hand clutched snug around the shaky railing as they ascended. "But if she does they'll probably be finished pretty quickly."

"Yeah, okay."

They arrived at the Student Council office just as Tsubaki Shinra was leaving. The tall young woman nodded sharply at her fellow servant, her heterochromatic eyes glittering behind her glasses with some secret tension that only Genshirou seemed to understand. The silent communication set Ravel's teeth on edge, but she kept her mouth shut and followed Naruto into the room.

Sona's bangs were held up out of her face with a little plastic hairclip, keeping her vision clear as she glared down at the scattered pile of papers that were strewn across her desk. At some point she'd even set her glasses aside, letting the violet orbs she shared with her sister to blaze unfiltered. She looked a fright, messed and thoroughly frazzled with the top button of her uniform popped loose.

What was even more concerning than her disordered appearance was how Sona didn't even seem to notice the arrival of her Pawn or the young nobles that she herself had called for.

"Uh, should we come back later?" Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, giving a tiny grin when Sona jerked back in shock and bashed her knee on the bottom of the desk with a thump.

Rubbing at her knee with a ferocious frown, Sona just shook her head. "No. I needed to speak with you." Then without further commentary the Sitri heiress went about tidying her appearance up. The hairclip came out, the glasses were perched back on her nose, and her ruffled Kuoh Academy uniform was straightened and rebuttoned.

Naruto just waited with a patient smirk, throwing himself into the seat opposite of Sona as she fastidiously groomed herself. He was certainly more forgiving than Ravel, who found herself growing more irritated as the seconds ticked on and Sona attended to her own vanity.

Once she'd pampered herself to perfection, Sona took a moment to gather up her papers in a neat orderly pile and set them off to the side. Then, with her need for organization was fully satisfied; the dark-haired young woman finally offered her full attention to Naruto.

"Did you have fun?" Naruto questioned wryly, crossing his right leg over his left and lounging back in the padded leather chair he'd temporarily claimed. "Or did you need a few more minutes to play around with yourself?"

The innuendo passed without any response save for the irritated little twitch that spasmed once through Sona's eyebrows. Instead Sona steepled her fingers, bracing her elbows on the varnished wood and concealing her mouth behind the pale flesh of her hands.

The light in her eyes as she studied Naruto for a long silent minute was cautious, weighing a thousand unspoken conversations before she decided to simply cut to the heart of the matter. "I've come to the conclusion that it might be for the best if you and your peerage decided to stop attending Kuoh Academy."

Ravel snapped to anxious attention at that, fighting back the urge to clench her hands into tight fists as she looked back and forth between Sona and her Pawn. The Sitri heiress didn't _seem_ to be outright hostile, and Saji simply gawked into space with a bored expression on his face. But that didn't actually mean anything, and the possible implications of Sona's suggestion were enough to make the blonde break out in a cold sweat.

Tension thickened in the air like the steam that built up over time in a sauna, hot and suffocating as Ravel stood next to Sona's gormless little servant against the wall while their masters stared each other down. Ten choking wordless heartbeats passed before Naruto finally reacted, shifting his gaze from Sona to Saji.

"Get out."

"Wait, what? Why?"

Typically ordering around another noble's servants was frowned upon, and considering how brash Genshirou was as a person Naruto's demand would have provoked an angry outburst in most other circumstances. But when Saji's instinctive denial garnered a stare of pure naked malice the boy swallowed thickly and decided to cut his losses by fleeing the room.

Content that the circle of witnesses had tightened, Naruto pursed his lips and looked back at Sona. His eyes had darkened from a warm sunny blue to dim cobalt, like the ocean trapped beneath a thick layer of ice. "Why."

The statement was less of an inquiry and more of a threat, like Naruto was more interested in the quickest way to cut open Sona's throat than he was in her reasoning.

Sona had more guts than Ravel had thought, since the violet-eyed devil didn't even flinch beneath the toxic weight of Naruto's malevolence. "You are obviously not enjoying it. My intention of having you attend this academy for three years was to ensure that in the future you have an appropriate appreciation for the worth of the educational system considering our eventual goals. It's self-defeating if you end up holding disdain for it instead."

The aggression didn't entirely drain out of her King at that explanation, but he visibly eased.

And for good reason.

Sona Sitri's habit of rocking the boat and meddling in his business was an unwelcome one, but it was a thousand times preferable to the possibility that she was reneging on their initial bargain. If the bookish young woman had decided to turn her back on them and cross back over into Sairaorg's camp it could have been an utter disaster.

An ignorant Sairaorg Bael wasn't one that held onto the trappings of power or worked against them. A Sairaorg Bael that was aware that his own cousin had entirely different plans and ideals than he did was a potentially lethal menace.

Naruto sighed tiredly, rubbing at his forehead with calloused fingers. Ravel could see the exasperated anger in every movement and understood that her fiancé was experiencing a moment of deep frustration. She didn't even blame him, considering that she felt the exact same way.

"So what, are you trying to get something else outta me to make up for not fulfilling your fantasies? Not that it matters anyway. It's out of our hands at this point."

Glaring at the insinuation that she was faithless and cruel enough to try to extort further concessions from a boy she grew up with, Sona shook her head empathetically. "No! As I told you, there's simply no reason to force you to continue attending. I'm not trying to blackmail you into submission."

"Right." Naruto snorted cynically, cracking his fingers with idle displeasure. "But like I said, it _doesn't_ matter. When I asked the clan to give you what you wanted they jumped at the chance. "At this point even if I wanted to leave, I can't. Gramps wants me here for a reason. One that's bigger than just you or me."

Sona didn't have anything to say to that. If Naruto had to be in the city in any case then his attending the academy just giving him something to do during the weekdays, and suddenly dropping out would raise more issues than it would solve.

With the wind taken out of her sails the impromptu meeting ended quickly, Naruto sweeping out of the office without another word. They were at an impasse, and there was nothing to be gained by sitting around with Sona and theorizing about what the clan was after when they'd stationed their heir in a human city.

Ravel trotted along at his heels, sparing one backward glance for the Sitri heiress. The last thing she saw before the door closed was the gears of suspicion starting to turn in the back of Sona's eyes.

"That woman might end up being a problem."

"Oh I know. Believe me, I know."

* * *

Rain crashed down, turning the pavement dark as oil and slick with moisture, and not for the first time Yuuto cursed fate for being the bitch she was. It's was like the world had a hard on for making his life more difficult than it had to be.

Huddling closer against the glass and metal frame of the bus station shelter he wondered if he ought to take a few hours to relax. He'd pilfered enough cash before leaving Kuoh that he was able to afford the informal exchange rates vendors had charged him for food, so a motel room probably wasn't out of the question.

Getting out of the rain for a few hours seemed like a grand idea, and it wasn't like Galilei was going to run off. If that bastard knew that Yuuto was in Seogwipo he'd hunt the Knight down himself just to marvel at his so-called creation.

Arrogant prick.

The Knight huffed, cupping his hands around his mouth and breathing low and warm and wet on his chilled palms. Thin white mist seeped through the cracks between his fingers, tinted a very faint yellow by the amber streetlights.

Fine. He supposed that it wouldn't hurt to take a few hours to pull himself together. Even if Sasuke and Rias came after him they'd never find him without Roland's notes. If Roland himself decided to help them they'd find their way to Jeju City, but that was as far as Roland's memory could take them.

The exorcist was good at his job, but he didn't know Galilei. He didn't know how that mad bastard scientist thought. He didn't know Galilei's habits. Roland was never going to take down Galilei, because the former Archbishop was too canny to be caught so easily.

Despite his megalomania, Galilei didn't usually bother with the trappings of arrogance. A less cautious man would search out abandoned churches and build his labs there just to make a statement. A less cautious man would just abduct children off the streets when he needed more experiments, leaving a trail of bodies and missing persons. A less cautious man wouldn't have survived for so long against the concerted effort of Heaven to destroy him.

The Genocide Archbishop had only one real flaw. He loved his experiments too much. He was too curious, and it would make him reckless enough not to run even after he found out that Yuuto had arrived in the city to kill him. He'd underestimate the blond and assume that Yuuto was too broken down to do any harm. He wouldn't flee unless he thought that he'd been discovered by those he considered to be real threats.

Yuuto intended to prove to Galilei just how much of a _real threat_ he was.

* * *

"And you're certain?"

"Yes." Roland hesitated, running an anxious hand through his short copper curls while he stared at Rias with his sad green eyes. By rights the exorcist should have looked pleased, or even triumphant. But instead he just looked beaten down, ragged, tired, and old. "You should get some rest. We'll leave in the morning."

Then he left without another word, the door swinging shut with a little creak that begged for a little bit of oil. The lock clicked into place behind him.

It was impolite of him to just depart without even waiting for her farewell, but Rias was too exhausted to care about it. A full two days without sleep left her eyes swollen and dry with lack of sleep, and the only thing keeping her on her feet was the agitated energy that was born of knowing Yuuto could be killed at any moment.

"Hey," Sasuke muttered in her ear, stepping close behind the redhead and sliding a warm arm around her waist. "Relax."

A slow frustrated groan escaped her lips, but almost unconsciously the coiled tightness in her spine eased, and Rias leaned back against her Pawn's chest. The familiar sharp clear scent of a thunderstorm filled her nose, and Rias found herself relaxing to the point that her muscles were as soft as putty, despite her anxiety.

Sometimes it worried her how much influence her dark-hearted love so easily wielded over her. Surely _this_ wasn't normal?

"We'll get there before he gets in too much trouble."

Rias chose to believe in that reassurance, burying her fear beneath optimistic logic and Sasuke's cool confidence. It wasn't even necessarily irrational of her to do so. Yuuto might know how to find Galilei better than they did, but that didn't make Yuuto himself adept at avoiding hunters.

A blond-haired grey-eyed foreign devil stood out in East Asia. If they couldn't hunt the former archbishop, they would just hunt her Knight and hope they found him before he found Galilei.

"We should sleep while we can." Rias murmured, tucking her foolish little dream of an easy reunion in the back corner of her mind before she turned around in the half-circle of Sasuke's arm. "Seogwipo isn't the largest city in the world. We don't have a lot of time to throw away."

A few hours of sleep were all they could grab. Any more than that risked giving Yuuto too much time to find Galilei without them.

More than a few hours gave Yuuto too much time to die in, alone and far from home.

Sasuke hummed in agreement, keeping any personal feelings he had locked up behind the unfathomable black depths of his eyes even as he followed her to their bed. The Uchiha protected his vulnerabilities like he always had, through denial and silence.

They slipped beneath the covers, shedding most of their clothes and curling up in a ball of tangled limbs and bare flesh.

Considering that they weren't hidden away in their warded home and the only thing concealing them was a flimsy brass lock, they were taking an enormous risk. All it would take was one overeager servant of the Church bursting in during the night and Sasuke's head would be on the block.

And on any other night Rias would have bowed to her own caution and acted like the perfectly chaste noble daughter she was supposed to be. But right now she was just too empty and too heartsick to protest Sasuke's carelessness.

Her family might fall to pieces in the morning. The law was nothing against that horrific possibility.

"I'm scared."

Sasuke turned to Rias, the pale skin of his face barely visible in the faint light that seeped in through the frilly curtains. Even his features were indistinct, the sharp angles blurring in the night and the hollows of his eyes fading to dimmed pits. "I know." He whispered, acknowledging and caving to the fragility in Rias that she herself loathed. "I know."

Warm lips sought out his, feather-soft and clumsy and hesitant without light to guide their way. Rias wasn't entirely sure what she was asking for beyond amnesia and oblivion, but she knew that she needed it or else she would go mad with the waiting. She craved feeling nothing but security and tenderness and - and damn the law.

Dragging the tips of her nails across the muscled plane of Sasuke's stomach, Rias ventured south. Slowly south, until her curious questing fingers slipped behind the waistband of his boxers and took hold of him in a way that made Sasuke shudder with barely repressed lust.

_Please._

_Please._

He gave in.

Growling like a wild beast, Sasuke threw off the threadbare blanket the priory had lent them. "You're growing to drive me crazy one day." He breathed like an oath, his eyes burning pinwheel red as he rolled on top of her, gripping Rias' hips with bruising force and shaking hands.

Rias felt like telling him that was a good thing, that when that day came he would finally know exactly how she felt, but his lips were on her neck and all the words in her mind scattered away as he devoured her skin inch by white inch.

Heat blazed between Rias' legs, burning hotter and wetter every time they brushed against one another through the thin layer of their underclothes. At some point she'd torn her t-shirt off, the fire in her veins too hot to bear anything but Sasuke's naked palms cupping her breasts.

Faint alarms rang in the back of her skull, but they were quickly smothered by the fey weight of the witching hour. All they had was _tonight_ , with the air as sweet as sin and shadows. The morning would come when it came, but until then Rias would just pretend like it could last forever.

"Don't you stop." Rias rasped, her hair spread across the pillows like a tide of blood. One of her hands came up to rake deep pink furrows across Sasuke's ribs, commanding with erotic pain that he touch her more - that he love her more.

Sasuke obliged, lowering his head to take one of her swollen rosy nipples in his mouth. The electricity sizzling across her nerves intensified, and suddenly it was toomuch.

Rias dropped both hands and ripped her panties off, throwing the ruined lace away without a second thought. She had spares and suddenly there was only one last layer of silk between her moist aching core and _him_.

For the first time since she'd kissed him, Sasuke appeared uncertain. The tomoe in his eyes twisted slowly as he studied her flush face, weighing the frantic light in her teal gaze. He didn't speak, because the Uchiha didn't need use his voice. They both understood wordlessly what was being asked.

A heartbeat passed.

Then Sasuke was kicking off his boxers and pushing inside her, stretching her open and claiming Rias in a way that had her groaning in the back of her throat. It hurt, but in a good way, and despite the ache she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper inside where he belonged.

There was no going back now. Not for either of them.

"Move!" she begged, and almost sobbed with relief when he obeyed.

At first Sasuke was careful, supporting himself on one arm and rubbing gently over her clit with the pad of his thumb. The combination of slow thrusts and teasing fanned the flames, searing away the last traces of pain and birthing a greedy yearning for more pleasure.

The impatient whine Rias made brought a satisfied smirk to Sasuke's lips, and after bracing over her with both hands he began to truly pound into her.

Sweat beaded across their skin, and when Rias surged up to kiss him she could taste the salt on his mouth. She drowned in the heady musk of their sex and the harsh dominance of his hands on her body, of his tongue wrestling with hers, of his cock spearing into her cunt.

Dazedly she wondered why she'd taken so long to yield.

The bed creaked alarmingly as Sasuke threw Rias' legs over his shoulders, taking advantage of the new leverage to hammer relentlessly at that one spot inside of her that had white lightning flashing behind her eyelids. He knew exactly how to break her, and for once she was actually thankful for that other life he'd lived without her. That experience was being put to good use now.

" _Rias_." Sasuke gritted into her ear, his voice thick with warning. The relentless pace of Sasuke's hips seemed to double, until the sensations all seemed to bleed together.

She struggled to link together coherent thoughts, but the only thing Rias' fevered brain could focus on was how he seemed determined to shatter her – to crawl right up into her until she was full of him. Until her insides matched her outsides, marked with purple blossoms of savage passion that loudly declared to anyone that dared to look what they'd done to each other.

Maybe when morning came the prim and proper priests that had given them shelter would take one glance at Rias and realize just how her bed had been used. How _she'd_ been used.

The fluttering in her belly tightened, and suddenly Rias fell through the cracks. She came hard, shaking into a moaning mess that clung desperately to Sasuke. She was so loud Sasuke hushed her with a harsh kiss, but she was so far beyond caring.

Let them all hear her.

Let them all come in and _watch_ if they wanted, she didn't give a damn. The only thing she cared about right then was that Sasuke was falling too, pouring himself into her lonely womb with a Faustian finality.

She was never giving this up.


	14. Chapter 14

The slow simmering of blood in the crystal beaker created a delightful little plopping symphony. Valper supposed it wasn't a conventionally enjoyable sound, but those who clung to convention were idiots that had no appreciation for the sacred mysteries underlying creation. There was no reason to listen to them.

God was dead, but His bones still held up the world. Compared to that, what use was convention?

Ah, it was enough to make Valper smile.

"What do you think, my dear?"

The green glow of light filtered through half a hundred Florence flasks dyed snow-white strands to celadon as Valper's lovely assistant loomed out of the shadows. As usual, her face was twisted up into sullen defiance, but the glittering vines of his geas circling around her pale neck kept her in line and obedient.

"It'll fail this time too." Tosca spit her words like sour poison, making Valper sigh with disappointment. One day the girl would come to appreciate the gifts he'd given her, but until then she seemed to want to cling to impractical sentimentality. If her Sacred Gear wasn't so useful in keeping his experiments concealed Valper might have cut his losses years ago.

Alas, Tosca was too useful to just throw away with the rest of the chaff. Between her Sacred Gear and the successful implantation of light attribute she contributed greatly to his research. And she'd do even more once she hardened that soft little heart of hers.

What a dear girl. It almost made Valper feel bad for her. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to indulge her a little.

"How so?"

Tosca rocked back on her heels, eyebrows drawn tight in confusion as she considered her master with a suspicious light in her eyes. "Your hypothesis is flawed." She eventually offered, glaring when the scientist offered her an encouraging smile. "Holy and Demonic energies are cosmic opposites. Just because the dark attribute is superficially similar to the light attribute doesn't mean that they can be synthesized together. You can't add matter and anti-matter together. It doesn't work. They just destroy each other."

An indulgent little grin twisted one corner of Valper's mouth, and he took his eyes away from his little series of boiling beakers to peer at the girl through the round lens of his spectacles. "Ah, but what if we give credence to the old myth that dark attribute is just an isotope of light attribute? In that case, couldn't we process equal amounts of both in order to produce a third isotope? A grey attribute, I suppose it might be called."

"That hasn't been proven though." Tosca shot back coolly, her gaze shifting to stare at Valper's latest test with angry longing. If her geas permitted her to, she'd openly sabotage every one of his attempts at unearthing the truth behind the universe. "It's just based on light attribute-centric human theology. Just because people say that demonic magic is just a corrupt version of holy magic doesn't make it true."

Stroking his thumb over the tufts of his grey moustache, Valper struggled to hold back his pleasure. His little pet was only standing at the very beginning of the road leading to true scientific curiosity, and it wouldn't do to scare her off.

After all, even if he could reverse the aging process no being was ever truly immortal. He needed an heir to carry on his work if something unforeseen happened to him. "Hence why I'm conducting this trial my dear. The light and dark attributes can't be examined or formulated in the same way other elements can. If synthesizing a 'grey attribute' is possible, discovering _how_ will require many attempts."

"Attempts!" Tosca chuckled bitterly, her fingers spasming with the urge to wrap her hands around Valper's throat. "So you're not even going to recognize them as _people_?" She practically vibrated with barely contained violence, her lips drawn so tightly they were pale and bloodless. The sight was enough to make Valper shake his head sadly, turning back to the line of test tubes on the table.

She obviously wasn't ready if she was still crying over the inputs for his experiments. If Valper could unearth the grey attribute he could eventually forge artifacts the world had never seen. Even in his mind the idea of a Holy Demonic Sword seemed larger than life. Using a few meat sacs to create the grey attribute was an acceptable loss.

One day Tosca would see that. But until then he would have to keep his geas drawn red hot and tight around her neck.

"Well my dear, if you would rather not participate I supposed I could find something else for you to do. Why don't you go find Isaiah for me and bring him down here? He's more resilient than I expected, so perhaps he's a good candidate for the next round of trials."

* * *

Yuuto swallowed the last bite of his bagel, washing down the taste of dry bread and old butter with a swish of warm water from his bottle. It was totally unsatisfying to the taste buds, but the Knight choked it down anyway. He was out for revenge, not gourmet meals.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, the blond narrowed his blue-grey eyes and _considered_.

Long streams of dark green ivy crawled up the weather-worn concrete walls of the ruined hospital. Most of the windows were blown out, and the metal fixtures Yuuto could see were so rusted away that nothing was left but small brown spikes. The building itself was squat and compact and thoroughly miserable.

If he had to guess Yuuto would say it had been abandoned so long ago that it probably didn't even appear on maps. Nature was claiming back the land, and no one cared enough to prevent it from doing so.

In most other circumstances Yuuto wouldn't have even looked twice at the forgotten outpost of industrial brutality. But he'd passed by the hospital three times now and kept finding himself drawn back to it with increasing suspicion.

If he were that fat old bastard, wouldn't it be simple enough with a few spells to turn the building into a halfway useful lab?

Yuuto quaffed the last bit of his water and then threw the bottle in the ditch beside the road. There was really only one thing to do. He'd investigate and either find Galilei or sooth his instincts and keep looking.

So after sparing a glance for the dying crimson sun, Yuuto ducked his head and began to slink over to the nearest hole in the iron-wrought fence surrounding the destitute property. He made it about seven steps before his instincts started screaming at him.

Bright red sparks flickered between Yuuto's fingers, the long hilt of a demonic sword slapping into his palm as the rest of the blade started to swell into existence. He turned on a single heel, the half-formed edge of his sword burning cerise as he twisted into a brutal decapitating stroke.

Yuuto didn't even get to follow through with his strike before he was suddenly shoved up against the fence, the corroded bars icy against his pale cheek. An iron grip wrapped around the blond's wrist, slamming his hand up against the railing above Yuuto's head so painfully the demonic sword he'd tried to summon faded back out of being.

Only the faint scent of storm and steel prevented the Knight from violently lashing out. "Get your hands off me!" he snarled instead, thrashing around until the hard body pressed against his back retreated.

Rubbing at his bruised wrist, Yuuto clenched his jaw and turned to glare at Sasuke. "What do you want?" He barely managed to bottle up his aggression, his nerves jittering with the need to make something bleed. He was so close to filling the empty hunger for vengeance inside of him, and Yuuto didn't want a self-appointed babysitter getting in his way and trying to smother him.

Sasuke didn't respond, simply staring at Yuuto with a gaze as dark and cold as black ice. There were a dozen things that Yuuto expected to see in the Pawn's face, from anger to disappointment to reluctant understanding. But instead he got nothing at all, and Sasuke might as well have been chiseled out of marble.

It was enough to make his stomach curl up with anxiety.

"Yuuto."

The blond bit the inside of his cheek until the tang of iron sunk into his tongue, shifting his focus to the rapidly approaching figures of Rias and Roland. It was just fucking _fantastic_ that the whole gang had managed to track him down before he cut out Galilei's throat. "What are you doing here?"

Frowning at her errant servant, Rias folded her arms across her chest with all the decisive gravity of a frigid judge laying down the law. "You know." She declared quietly, her voice so gentle and compassionate that Yuuto was swamped by the tangled tide of emotions rising in his breast.

The long years of unconditional affection laid heavy on him, and for the first time in days Yuuto was ashamed.

He did know. But that knowledge only made Yuuto aware that he needed to steel his heart. He was a Knight of the House of Gremory, but before that he was an avenger. He had a duty that came before everything else. So instead of bowing to Rias' low censure, Yuuto hunched his shoulders and turned away.

* * *

Their silent quartet roamed through the corridors of the hospital, their heels clicking on the cracked tacky linoleum. More than once they had to step around fields of sharp glass shards where the windows had fallen in under their own weight and shattered.

Wrath hung in the air, spanning a hundred invisible threads that thrummed with taut fury. Rias knew that even a single word would be enough to bring the whole charade crashing down around them, so she clenched her jaw tight and hoped no one would dare to nettle her looking for a bit of commentary.

Rias didn't know how to even begin reaching out to Yuuto. It had seemed so simple when all she had to worry about was providing a stable home for her Knight and soothing down the rare burst of temper after a nightmare. But now the blond moved like a man possessed, his face grey and bloodless while his eyes burned with a sick obsessed flame.

Roland was no better off than her, and out of the corner of her vision Rias could see the man struggling to decide how to deal with the boy he'd once known. As well he should, she thought a bit uncharitably, since it was his negligence that had led to this in the first place.

Still, she couldn't quite throw him under the bus entirely. They were almost two peas in a pod, her and the exorcist; spinning in the wind and unsure what to do with themselves.

The only thing keeping Rias sane in this blistering pit of doubt was how Sasuke never faltered. His expression was shuttered, and his thoughts were hidden, but he followed Yuuto with steady surety and Rias took strength from that.

"He's here."

Yuuto breathed into the dusty stillness, his voice as harsh as granite ground over gravel. The blond's sudden declaration renewed the stiff tension in them, with Roland sliding a hand under the folds of his frock and Rias' shoulders drawing painfully tight. Only Sasuke seemed unbothered, sliding around their broken brother with every movement like liquid smoke.

If it took burning a hundred human hearts to achieve that level of poised relaxation, Rias would cut them out with her bare hands a dozen times over without a second thought. She envied Sasuke's easy demeanor with the hunger of a needy snake. How the Uchiha could simply brush off the maddened twist to Yuuto's face was beyond her.

Rias wished she could hold onto that level of equanimity rather than feeling like her very bones were under siege. How could they ever go back to the way things were after _this_?

Staggering over a cracked divide in the floor tiles, Rias pressed one open palm against the gritty walls while she clutched the other over her frantically beating heart. And with howling crimson throbbing down every nerve and between every vein, Rias made her choice.

The chopping whirls of the Sharingan when he looked back at her were warm, and Rias knew that Sasuke believed in her and in Yuuto. She could do no less than that.

* * *

Rusted iron raged across his taste buds with every inhale, and Roland wasn't sure if the air itself was poisoned or if he was just constantly on the edge of heaving up metallic stomach bile. Horror and triumph blended together easily in his stomach, and the exorcist didn't know what he should be feeling at the moment.

Would it be better if he acknowledged the sinking despair he felt when he considered just how unstable Yuuto really was under the façade of a Gremory Knight? Or should he default to his years of experience as an exorcist and think about nothing but the satisfaction that came with bringing another monster to justice?

Roland's faith was being truly tested today, and he wondered what the Lord was trying to tell him.

"If he's here we need to move _fast_ , otherwise he might get away. This ends today."

It took Roland a long moment to realize that _he_ was the one that had spoken, words falling from his lips in a hoarse rasp that sounded like it should have come from someone's dying grandfather in a nursing home rather than a barely middle-aged priest.

Heaven have mercy on him.

Yuuto turned on the spot. Fading sunlight slanted in from the empty window, blazing up the dustmotes floating in front of his face with a vermillion tint. The dust was just thick enough to blur and soften the starkly carved angles of his face. If Roland really tried, he could probably delude himself into thinking the blond wasn't standing on the brink of the yawning abyss.

"Do it."

Sighing at the whispered demand from her Knight, Rias shook her head with a touch of irritation before laying her right hand against the mold-stained grey block wall. A single glittering scarlet spark dancing between her ivory knuckles was the only warning any of them had before the Power of Destruction burst forth with a roar.

A spanning wave of red and black sorcery punched through concrete, travelling on and out as it devoured everything in its path. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor all vanished beneath the tide of Rias' power, leaving behind the shell of a suddenly unstable building and the flickering ultramarine light of a magical barrier.

Sasuke blinked through the dust, his gaze roving back and forth between the hospital's outer walls that seemed to shiver with the desire to cave in. Then very deliberately he looked at his Mistress, every feature of his face smoothed blank with unimpressed judgement.

"What?"

"Did you really have to do that?"

Puffing her cheeks up indignantly, Rias crossed her arms and spun on her heel to better study the slowly dimming shield that had stopped her strike from travelling into the basement. "You're just mad you didn't think to do it first."

Yuuto scoffed harshly at the byplay, shoving past Roland and leaping down through the roaming clouds of dust to land in the rubble two stories below, a wickedly cutting sword already clenched in his hand.

Thinning his lips at the mercurial young man, the exorcist rubbed at the shoulder the Knight had barreled into before shaking his head with a sigh. If it had been anyone else he'd have chided them for the disrespect, but Roland didn't feel brave enough to chastise Yuuto. Not after he'd essentially allowed Galilei to take the boy in the name of the Church and torture him for inhumane experimental science.

The priest gave Sasuke and Rias a last nod of acknowledgement and followed Yuuto on down.

* * *

If Sasuke was a better man he could claim to be a living cliché, swallowing the sun and feeling it warm his stomach with passionate rays. But Sasuke wasn't Naruto, and when he breathed in it was with the frigid taste of a dark moon filling his mouth and forgotten stars lambent in his lungs.

Sasuke wasn't idealistic or hypocritical enough to expect anyone else to give up vengeance. So while he would suggest that Yuuto proceed cautiously, he'd never demand absolution. There was only so much a heart could take, and complete forgiveness was rarely one of those things. Most people simply weren't that wholesome.

Revenge sung through the air, hanging over all of them like a sharp-edged sword of Damocles. It wasn't the first time Sasuke had heard that discordant song, and in his marrow he knew it wouldn't be the last. In every world he had been born to be an avenger, and Gehenna was no different. Yuuto needed a guiding hand on that midnight road, and Sasuke would do the best that he could.

Landing on the balls of his feet, Sasuke prowled through the settling powder with the Sharingan burning in both eyes and the swelling current of magic seeping through his muscles. He was ready to call up fire and lightning at the first sign of resistance like some heathen god out of myth.

The dark-haired devil stepped up beside Roland, and out of the corner of his vision he could see Rias coming up on his other side. Neither of them spoke for a long moment, instead just standing back and watching as Yuuto went wild on the sapphire dome blocking their way into the basement.

The Knight swung his sword like a berserker, his teeth bared with fury as he used the demonic steel he'd conjured like a club. Each strike rang low like a gong, spiderwebbing faint cracks along the barrier. More than once Yuuto's blade shattered in his hand, but the blond didn't hesitate to summon another and continue his crusade despite the blood and blisters that were building on his palms.

Rolling a worn set of prayer beads in one hand, Roland fidgeted with the contained need to offer his help. Between the four of them they'd probably be able to smash through the glowing wall of light in an instant, but they could all sense on a deep and primal level that trying would be a mistake.

For the sake of overcoming the demons inside his own mind, Yuuto had to do at least this much alone. Every raging blow was an expression of the venom in his memories, and only be working through his hate and despair would Yuuto be able to get the poison out.

Halfway through one of Yuuto's feral swings the tall blue dome simply shivered and collapsed, spraying out a hundred glistened indigo shards that buzzed faintly as they faded into the ether. It was like the magician powering the shield simply gave up on keeping the intruders out, conceding the struggle without fanfare or melodrama.

"Be careful." Sasuke heard Rias mutter under her breath as they moved closer to Yuuto, peering into the belly of the earth that had been revealed. The Uchiha wasn't sure if she was talking to him or if it was an aborted suggestion she'd intended for the Knight, but he decided to take heed regardless.

Especially considering the foreign pair of eyes that Sasuke could feel digging into his back.

"You didn't have to destroy the whole place, you know. You could have waited and I'd have let you in without all the fuss. Those were my orders anyway."

A young woman hopped down into the shallow crater carved out by Rias' destructive energy, her white hair drawn into twin tails that swayed and bobbed as she descended. Her youthful energy and the little plastic shopping bag that dangled from one arm only made her approach seem even more surreal.

Quite frankly she looked like a bored teenager that had decided to do a bit of breaking and entering, and only the arcane light seething from maroon characters gouged into her neck broke the illusion.

This girl was nothing but a slave, chained to a master that had manipulated her over and over until the curse of compulsion was burned into her.

"Tosca." Yuuto croaked in a thick betrayed tone, stumbling over a loose stone as he wobbled forward. His pupils were blown dark and wide with disbelief as he fought to piece together the past and present. " _Tosca_." He breathed again, even lower and more desperate than before, his conviction splintering under the frozen fey regard of the girl he'd left behind.

It didn't take a dramatic declaration for Sasuke to square his shoulders and step up. He certainly didn't need Rias' hiss in his ear pointing out the slave mark branded into Tosca's throat.

Sasuke simply _knew_ \- like he knew that the blood running in his veins blotted sticky and red – that Yuuto's time of reckoning was at hand. Maybe in the end the Knight would find nothing but bitterness and sorrow like Sasuke had when he'd killed Itachi, or maybe he'd find salvation. The outcome wasn't for Sasuke to decide.

All he could do right now was clear the way.

The Sharingan sucked up every scrap of energy Sasuke could spare like a thirsty parasite, tomoe contra-rotating as the Uchiha put on violence like a cloak and beckoned crackling flames to his palms.

"You three go on ahead. I'll take her on."

* * *

Pockmarked stone scraped along his palm like sandpaper, leaving behind half a dozen jagged tears in the pale flesh of his palms. Trickles of wet warmth trailed down Yuuto's hands, but Rias wasn't quite willing to accept her Knight's demand that they slow down. She kept forcing him along, even when he stumbled and rubbed his skin raw against the walls as he tried to hold himself up and turn around.

Part of him was grateful for that, because if she wasn't so insistent that they move along and face his destiny he'd run back up to the surface and shake his old friend silly until she explained exactly what the fuck was going on.

Tosca had _survived_.

He could barely believe it. When Yuuto had escaped he'd been the last child in a cell full of corpses, the sickly-sweet scent of rotting flesh so thick in his nose he could taste it. He sometimes woke up screaming with the phantom of that scent curling in his lungs.

By the time he'd gotten so starved that he could squeeze in between the bars, Yuuto had known no one could have survived that hell. And even he'd died in the end, and it was just luck that had brought Rias to him at the right time for a rebirth. That cell had been a crucible that left behind no survivors.

But then again, Yuuto had been so fevered and high on drugs that he'd barely been able to tell which way was up. If Tosca had been barely clinging to life beside him he didn't even notice. All that had been on Yuuto's mind back then was the dream of finally being free, and once he'd broken out the blond had never looked back.

He'd never realized he had to. He'd never thought that someone else might be lying broken in that mountain of bodies, hoping to be saved.

A thin tear seeped out of the corner of Yuuto's eye, burning hot and salty with the shame that curdled in his gut. Tosca had been alive, which meant that he'd abandoned her to slavery and suffering.

Pain prickled in his bicep as Rias' nails dug into his skin. "You need to pull yourself together. We can't afford any mistakes right now." The redhead hissed in Yuuto's ear, her hushed voice nearly lost beneath the roaring in his mind. "Galilei put a geas on her, and we need to find him and kill him before she slips past Sasuke."

It was like a switch abruptly flipped inside of him. In one moment Yuuto was drowning in dishonor, and in the next he was utterly consumed with a white-hot anger that snuffed out every other feeling inside of him.

Yuuto had known that Galilei was a student of a dozen different schools of magic, but he hadn't thought the man was willing to jump through so many hoops for a half-assed curse.

Creating a geas required that both parties sacrifice blood at Newgrange on the autumn equinox under mutually negotiated terms. Then on top of that a geas could only exist between humans and expired every five years, and any terms agreed on were vague and flexible. It simply wasn't _useful_ as a binding contract to enforce loyalty.

The only real result of a geas was pain and inaction when the one bearing the curse violated its vague terms. But then maybe that was enough to tickle Galilei's sadistic sense of amusement. Or maybe Galilei had just been interested in exploring Gaelic sorcery. Yuuto didn't really care all that much.

Either way, he was going to carve out that bastard's innards with his nails if he had to.

"Let's go."

Faint green light shaded the walls and floors of the corridor a dull jade, slowly brightening as they crept along through the eerie silence. Yuuto had expected _something_ when he'd stumbled down the stairs, but the air was so hushed the only thing he could hear was the ragged sound of his own breathing.

Not even Tosca and Sasuke fighting above their heads made it into the basement. It was like they'd stepped into an entirely different world, falling through the cracks of reality into a timeless place where nothing but destiny could exist.

Yuuto licked his dry lips, tasting the salt of his anxious sweat, and then turned the corner.

And there he was, bent over a stainless-steel workbench and humming an off-key Greek hymn without a care in the world.

The Knight didn't even know he was moving until he found himself thrown to the floor, his summoned sword shattering in his hands as it bounced off a curved sheet of golden glass.

Galilei's shield was irritatingly perfect, arcane glyphs floating sunshine yellow in the air as they hummed with bound magical energy.

"Are you still as impatient as ever, Isaiah?"

The bastard hadn't even twitched. Galilei just stood there with his back to them, adding a few last touches to his research notes with a flourish. It was only after he'd carefully gathered up his notebooks and stacked them in a neat pile that the man deigned to turn around.

Black eyes shone with clinical cruelty behind thin round lens, but when Galilei beamed his face was kind. His mouth tugged up happily, deepening the soft wrinkles around his lips. "It's good to see you." He told his former experiment, beaming at Yuuto like a loving grandfather.

The truth was still in Galilei's eyes, and the man's attempt to play nice only mad Yuuto even more infuriated. But before he could launch himself at the former priest again Roland stepped in front of him.

"Valper Galilei." The exorcist acknowledged coldly, with all his nervous uncertainty buried under iron resolve. Even if Roland didn't quite know how to act around Yuuto, he was in his element now with his target right in front of him. "Heaven has charged you with crimes against humanity. Come quietly and you will be given a fair trial."

The declaration rang like final judgement, slow and deliberate and immutable. Maybe it was just a formality for Roland at this point, but Heaven offered everyone the chance for redemption no matter how low they'd fallen. According to their doctrine everyone deserved a second chance to make up for their mistakes, and even if Roland knew Galilei would never accept it he still had to offer the opportunity for the man to become more than the sadist he esd.

Intellectually Yuuto supposed he could appreciate that. The Knight owed his own life to second chances and the promise of a better future. But sometimes the heart ruled over the mind, and Yuuto had no mercy left. Not for _him_.

Galilei just snickered, deep and rolling and full of nostalgic amusement. "I'd almost forgotten how ritualistic and self-righteous the Church's good little boys could be. Ahh, memories." He wiped away a tear of laughter. "No, old friend, I don't think I will. Too much to do and too little time to do it in, you understand."

"Still." The sociopathic former archbishop added, finally turning his attention to Rias and peering at her through the buzzing glaze of his shield. "I won't say you've wasted your time bringing both Isaiah and the princess of the Gremory clan here. Well done."

A sneer rippled over Rias' face; her pale pretty features twisted with contempt and disgust. She regarded the scientist with the same look she'd probably wear if she was considering whether or not she really wanted to get her shoes dirty crushing the life out of a cockroach.

The greedy glint that blazed in Galilei's obsidian orbs as he studied Rias was one that Yuuto recognized, and his blood ran cold with remembered fear. _There_ was Galilei's true self, hungry and malicious and immoral, and Yuuto knew that he was picturing what Rias would look like spread out and vivisected on the operating table.

So the Knight made the only move left to him.

"I am done talking."

Stretching out his hand, Yuuto dug deeper. He needed more than just another blade, and when he called Sword Birth answered. Shadows poured from the tips of his fingernails, like strings of liquid ink that spun together into black steel and dark gold.

The Holy Eraser practically sang in Yuuto's hand, and when he smiled his mouth was stretched just a little too wide for sanity.


	15. Chapter 15

Tosca wiped her nose on her sleeve before spitting out a thick ball of blood and saliva. The pain of being punched in the head a dozen times over left her feeling like her face was a throbbing swollen mess, and the only reason she hadn't cut her losses and run away already was the geas drawn tight around her neck.

"Fuck you." The white-haired girl laughed bitterly, pinching up the collar of her sweater and blowing out trails of gory snot. Spidering threads of pain spread over her face with every movement, but she struggled through it. She didn't have a choice.

She'd been bound by geas to be loyal to Galilei and his goals, so her only options were to fight until she won or fight until she was beaten into unconsciousness. Surrender would only lead to her being choked to unconsciousness by the geas.

Of course, there was always the option of throwing herself at Sasuke and hoping he killed her. But while maybe death might be better than living under Galilei's thumb forever, Tosca couldn't quite force herself to make a suicidal charge. Isaiah had escaped and made a life away from Galilei's poison, and the possibility of gaining her own freedom was enough to make Tosca fight for her own existence.

She wasn't broken quite yet.

Sasuke just looked down on her, his dark demonic gaze unruffled. He showed about as much interest and investment as he would if he were watching a plant grow, which made strategic sense but still pissed Tosca right off. Her life was on the line and this devil bastard couldn't even muster up enough compassion to give a damn about her or Isaiah's suffering.

He didn't even care enough to ask her to give up. She wouldn't have said _yes_ , but the offer would have been nice.

Rolling indigo light blossomed under her hands as Tosca drew on her Sacred Gear and forced her aching body to keep on moving.

Bright red eyes followed her as Tosca circled back and forth cautiously, throwing little crystal darts at Sasuke and watching how the devil dodged around them with supernatural grace. She was only human, and he moved much faster than her and hit a hell of a lot harder, but that didn't mean that she was out of options. Even Sasuke had to have a weak spot somewhere.

The vague glow beneath her fingers intensified as she conjured up a barrier and bent it back until she was holding a roughly shaped hollow spear between her palms.

In the end she didn't even have to win. Tosca just needed to get past him and down into the basement where Galilei would protect her. What a world she lived in; where the safest place for her was under the thumb of her personal tormentor.

Tosca's throat burned as she spun on her heel and struck hard.

Maybe it was the last gasp of her conscience or maybe she was just feeling nostalgic for those cold years she'd spent weeping with Isaiah and the rest of their friends, but as Tosca moved through her lunge the point of her lance dipped from Sasuke's chest to his stomach and then down to his right thigh. She had to get past him, but maybe she didn't have to kill Isaiah's friend.

Or maybe it didn't matter since the devil stepped out of the way with supreme ease and closelined her so hard Tosca saw stars. It was a miracle on its own that he didn't crush her windpipe.

"You should stay down." The young Italian woman heard through the ringing in her ears, and it made her laugh again. She laughed until she cried, thick heavy tears running down her face and mixing with the dried blood crusted around her nose. She laughed until Sasuke slowly approached, looming over her crouched form like her own personal thundercloud.

Then she moved, her barrier-type magic folding into a tip around her fists as she punched up at Sasuke.

Sasuke couldn't quite get out of the way in time, and he cursed as her left hand carved a deep furrow in his side. Blood splattered hot and heavy as the devil leapt back, his arms guarded and covered in lightning. "Clever." He admitted with irritation, watching the beaten and bruised human caution.

"Thanks." Tosca muttered sarcastically, climbing back to her feet and trying not to sway with the nausea that was still rolling in her stomach. Now all she had to do was keep getting the shit kicked out of her until she managed to get another hit in. Maybe by the time she was dead from blunt force trauma she'd manage to break a rib or something.

"I'll take you seriously this time." Sasuke told her coolly, the crimson in his eyes burning like midnight embers. Then after giving Tosca just enough time to regret that she'd been trained as a lab assistant rather than as a bodyguard, he vanished.

In between one heartbeat and the next Sasuke was suddenly right her face, hammering his knuckles into her forehead with enough force that Tosca could feel the bruises forming. But she didn't have time to moan about it, not with the devil shifting through martial arts forms so quickly that she could barely keep up.

As soon as she threw up a barrier he knocked it right down, fire and lightning flickering over his fists as he battered down her barricades and left stinging welts all over her pale skin.

For the first half hour of their fight Sasuke had played defensive, only coming after her when she got too close to the stairwell he was guarding. But now he was all aggression, and Tosca found she didn't have a taste for it. "You are such an asshole." She wheezed.

Honestly, it was like he was Bruce Lee. Or rather, the bastard child of Bruce Lee and Harry Potter. Kung Fu plus magic equals asskicking apparently. "Whoever said wizards are all squishy had no idea what the fuck they were talking about."

That startled a reluctant laugh out of Sasuke, but the devil didn't let up for a second. Chirping electricity screamed like a mutilated rabbit as he battered through the her latest shield with his fists and then flowed into a butterfly kick that slammed into her stomach like a freight train.

Tosca blinked back into consciousness a minute later, staring up at the evening sky and distinctly aware that the front of her jacket was soaked in mud and her own puke. She was really starting to rethink this whole 'living at all costs' business.

* * *

Yuuto flew through the air like a nerveless worm, arms flopping in the dank darkness until he collided head first with the dusty shelves the lined the walls. Glass and wood crunched under the impact of his skull, and when the blond hit the floor he was vaguely aware that a dozen empty test tubes rained down around him shattering into splinters and shards that cut into his skin.

Copper filled his mouth, and as he prodded his tongue around his swollen gums he realized that Galilei had knocked a tooth loose. What a _shame_ that was. Now his perfect white smile was ruined. Or at least it would be until he convinced Valerie to fix it for him.

Laughing drunkenly, the Knight rolled over onto his stomach and crawled back upright. It took a few tries, and more than once he stumbled over the rubble and ended up skinning his knees as he fell.

Everything was light and fuzzy and floaty. "Like bubbles in a bathtub." Yuuto giggled, choking on a bit of snotty blood. Or maybe it was bloody snot?

"Fire and ashes." Warm hands cupped Yuuto's cheeks, pulsing cool but _red_ like the heart of a dying star. The fogginess snapped back, and suddenly all he was aware of was the feeling of what had to be a pickaxe stabbing him right between the eyes.

But in the end even that agony faded away, and when Yuuto blinked the tears and grit out of his eyes he found himself staring right into Rias' pale grim face.

"Be careful." Rias scolded him absently, brushing her fingers across his forehead and channeling another pulse of healing magic into her servant. "You don't want to run out of here with brain damage."

Before Yuuto could tell her that he didn't care what happened to him as long as Galilei was dead in the end, she was rushing back into the fray to reinforce Roland before the outmatched exorcist got himself massacred.

Yuuto pushed back the steady pounding in his head, narrowing his grey gaze on Galilei while he cautiously summoned another demonic sword from the ground.

As much as it made him want to scream, Yuuto had to admit it. Galilei was on an entirely different level. The fat little ex-priest didn't look like much, but his knowledge of various magical disciplines was second to none. Yuuto got blasted aside every time he got close, and despite years of experience as an exorcist Roland was barely hanging on.

It was only when Rias engaged him directly, drawing on her deep wells of energy to rage at him with the Power of Destruction that Galilei seemed cautious.

Clenching his jaw and brushing off the throbbing left behind by his lost tooth, Yuuto watched. Nothing was more important than making that fucking bastard pay for what he'd done. Not his mercy, not his life, and not even his pride. As long as he got to stab his sword through Galilei's heart in the end Yuuto didn't care what he had to beg, borrow, or steal.

So what did he have to work with besides Sword Birth? Two allies and whatever else he could scrounge up from the increasingly ruined lab.

Yuuto tightened his grip around the leather-bound hilt of his longsword and began to slowly circle around the dark edges of the basement, quiet and careful like a jungle cat on the prowl. With every step he silently promised to give up everything for that one chance to strike, even if he had to rely on other people to win.

* * *

Scarlet and ebony mingled in a magical storm, long threads writhing together and digging deep trenches in the ceiling and the floor. Rias' enchantment ate into everything without limit, and sooner or later the swelling curls of the Power of Destruction would punch through to the surface or collapse the entire basement under tons of soil and rock.

Danger and death hung on their shoulders, but the redhead didn't let the fear rule over her. Instead she brought up her arms and moved them like a conductor, directing the scattered strains of her power into one cohesive tide that chased after Galilei like a hungry shark at sea.

The scientist glared at her through his still pristine glasses, conjuring up a rhombus shaped shield around his entire body. The edges of the polygon diverted the force that rode along with Rias' magic, but the barrier wasn't safe from the degrading properties of the Power of Destruction, and by the time Rias' attack splintered into nothingness the golden wall of energy was left looking worn down and wounded.

"Can you do that again?" Roland muttered, limping up beside the Ruin Princess with a throbbing saber of holy light held loosely in his palm. The white blade practically seethed with sacred energy, and Rias had to fight back the urge to flinch away. Ally or not, she hadn't built up much of a tolerance for holy energy in her life.

Inhaling slowly, Rias filled her lungs with the dust charged air in search of oxygen even as she nodded tightly. She didn't feel too winded, but no one could throw around explosive spell after explosive spell without paying some kind of toll. Even Galilei was starting to sweat after all the dodging and blocking he'd had to do.

Roland swept his gaze across the room, lingering on the deep shadows left behind by broken walls and damaged lights. "Now." He decided, licking his cracked dry lips and tasting the disgusting sticky film of sweat and debris.

The Power of Destruction surged once more, rising out of Rias' pores and assembling into a dozen arrowhead tipped snakes that weaved cautiously. She struck with the ferocity of a viper, her vermillion might slithering through the darkness with an echoing crack.

Galilei was already moving to defend himself, his tried and true shielding spell forming up in a dome that patiently weathered Rias' volley head on like she knew he would.

The Power of Destruction was _potent_ , but if the battle came down to Rias and Galilei alone its special properties wouldn't matter. They were superficially similar, both being bookish scholars; and had little taste for open combat. Left to their own devices the two of them would likely just stand around throwing spells at each other until endurance determined the victor. Neither of them would want to move until they were forced to.

Luckily for Rias, she wasn't fighting alone and the duel wouldn't boil down to two soft-bodied spellcasters hurling magic at each other until one of them was too tired to keep going. By the time Rias' attack had been spent Roland and Yuuto were already in position.

The exorcist came from the front, his mass-produced holy sword braced with both hands as he drove it forward like a javelin. And Yuuto came from behind, just out of Galilei's line of sight as he lunged out of the shadows with his demonic sword braced for a killing blow.

Weakened as it was by the slow depletion in Galilei's stamina and the disintegrating property of the Power of Destruction, the former archbishop's barrier shuddered under their blows. It shuddered but it held despite the tearing strain in Yuuto's muscles as he threw in everything his tired body could muster.

Galilei slowly craned his head over his shoulder, coal dark eyes settling on Yuuto's fury-flushed face.

He smiled.

Then Rias lashed out again with a howling gale of vermillion and ebony, not even bothering to shape her casting for better force distribution. Instead she just threw a formless cloud of decaying energy at the dark-eyed scientist, panting slightly as the Power of Destruction washed over top of the golden dome and began to seep in and dissolve.

Roland fell back with a curse, caught by the acidic splash-back that left half a dozen holes in his now thoroughly soil-stained frock. He even had to throw a forearm over his face as he retreated to a safe distance, desperate to protect his fragile glasses and precious eyes.

Yuuto had no such compunctions.

Instead Rias' Knight just screamed through the pain like he was forcing himself through a thicket of thorns, recognizing the way his flesh shredded but refusing to stop for a respite. The blond fought on, pushing and raging until Galilei's last bastion of protection gave way under the tip of his sword with an echoing peal.

The smug amusement drained out of Galilei's rotund face, and the elderly man found himself scrambling out of the way as the very lethal point of Yuuto's blade came at him.

Malicious satisfaction trilled in Rias' chest as Galilei tripped over the edge of a tile that their reckless battle had forced up from the formerly smooth floor. The snarl of injured hatred that ripped out of Galilei's throat as Yuuto's demonic sword skittered off his rib cage and sliced a deep gash in the flesh of his belly was music to the redhead's ears.

Even the rough explosion of white-gold light that erupted from the former priest's skin and succeeded in throwing back Yuuto, preventing her Knight from capitalizing on his small victory only barely dimmed Rias' satisfaction.

Blood seeped through Galilei's grey cossack, soaking through the grip of his thick fingers as he clapped a hand over his wound and cast a hefty healing enchantment. The damage wasn't mortal, but it didn't need to be. Curative magic would still take a good bite out of Galilei's stamina, and death by a thousand cuts was still a death. He'd gotten predictable, and that cost him.

The wrinkles in Galilei's face deepened to an almost absurd degree, flashes of maddened wrath and frustrated pride twisting his features into something better suited for a horror show. The sheer venom in his eyes took Rias' breath away for a moment – but only a moment, because a blink later all the emotion had been wiped from his expression like it had never been there in the first place.

Deliberately Galilei moved a carefully neutral gaze from one enemy to the next, considering Yuuto's feral triumph and Roland's exhausted worry and Rias' cautious optimism. "If that is how you prefer it, then." He exhaled cryptically, straightening his spine until he stood tall and more unyielding. There was no pretentious pandering left in him now.

Only the cold ruthless focus that had led to unthinkable atrocities and excommunication.

A little droplet of sweat dripped down to hang at the tip of Galilei's nose, shining like a tiny bead of dark emerald in the last vestiges of the sputtering green light given off by the former archbishop's few remaining intact experiments.

An almost unbearably heavy tension filled the basement as Galilei settled his stare back on Yuuto, raising up his hands to the ceiling. For a second they hung upright, one still soft and clean while the other was sticky with rapidly cooling splashes of crimson.

Then _it_ crackled through the air, white hot and golden like the heart of the sun, rolling and building until Rias couldn't bear to look at it. Here at last was the twisted reflection of divinity that Galilei had spent his life searching for, fallen but still stolen from the heart of Heaven.

Blisters rose and popped across her palms as Rias shielded her eyes, her devil flesh seared by the pure light magic. The rash spread like an allergic reaction, burning and hypersensitive until Rias swore more violently than she had in her entire life.

She couldn't fight cautiously. Not anymore. Not if she wanted to them to walk away living and victorious.

The Power of Destruction boiled up in her veins, dense and vermillion and heated by ancient ancestral darkness. It thrummed up and out, driving back Galilei's enchantment until they strove evenly for supremacy. He was more skilled and more efficient, but she had much more power than he did, and in that moment in was enough.

Pressure built until Rias couldn't even hear her own heartbeat through the shrieking in her ears, and then it detonated and the ceiling came crashing down at last.

* * *

Yuuto woke up in a snap, rising from numb unconsciousness to aching awareness in a single shivering jolt. "Fuck." He mumbled through his bruised and swollen mouth, trying to force his beaten body to do _something_. But a soft weight pressed him down relentlessly, and the Knight realized that when he opened his eyes all he saw was darkness.

Between the pain and the pressure there was only one thing to do.

He panicked.

Adrenaline spiked in Yuuto's tired veins, racing around his body with the full force of his hammering heart until he was shaking with pent up vigor and claustrophobia. The energy he dug out of some forgotten reserve of stamina was enough to fuel him as the blond began to frantically push and pull, until at last he shoved aside the smothering mass and burst out into the moonlight with a gasp of relief.

Chill freshness cycled through his lungs as Yuuto frantically hyperventilated, wiping the clammy sweat away from his forehead. More than once he coughed on a suddenly inhaled cloud of dust, but even that didn't kill his enthusiasm.

It took a good five minutes for his sprinting pulse to calm down and the fog of anxiety to fall away, and as it did he slowly became aware of the distant boom of volatile fire.

The memory of the battle hit him like a kick to the teeth, and Yuuto swore viciously as he forced himself to his feet. How long had he been out for? It couldn't have been that long, since the moon was still in the sky and at least someone was still fighting. Galilei was not dead yet, which meant his revenge was still at hand.

Rolling his shoulders to test out his range of motion, Yuuto cursed again when his right shoulder spasmed as he tried to raise his arm over his head. He managed to force it out of sheer willpower, but the effort left his pale and shaking.

Whatever. It didn't matter. He was equally skilled with both hands when it came to swordsmanship and he only needed one hand in the end to shove his blade through Galilei's flabby throat.

Yuuto massaged his shoulder just long enough to make the pain fade to a dull burn, and then turned to make his way over the wreckage and to the battle, only to stop short with a curdle of nauseous dismay.

Glazed green eyes stared slightly up at Yuuto, the sclera dark and bloodshot. Roland's glasses had been lost during the collapse, leaving his features pale and sharp without any barrier to soften the open scratches that danced over his brow or the long thin line of blood that streaked down from one nostril.

Sucking in a breath through his teeth, Yuuto kneeled back in the dirt with shaking hands and fumbled fruitlessly at the priest's throat, searching for a pulse that he knew wouldn't be there – not with the footlong steel girder poking out of the man's chest. But even if it was useless, he had to touch for himself. He needed to lay his damp palms on the exorcist and let the blood soak in under his fingernails.

It was so horribly clear what had happened that it made Yuuto want to vomit. Roland's body had been laying on top of Yuuto, smothering him when he woke up; because when the ceiling came down the man had decided to throw himself over top of the younger man and shield him at the price of his own life.

This was the cost of his choices. Yuuto had run for days on nothing but his own arrogance and earned a visitation from death in return. He'd been ready to pay the toll personally, and he'd thought he wouldn't care if someone else had to pay it on his behalf. But when the reality dropped into his lap the Knight found himself bent over and heaving with the shame.

Roland had only wanted to reconnect with Yuuto, to find some common ground and do something to heal the scars that he felt responsible for. But now it was a reconciliation that would never come. Yuuto and Roland would never be able to speak those words that had gone unsaid, hidden with the naïve assumption that there would always be a better next time.

In the end, Roland had died for someone that could never deserve it.

"May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace." The prayer scorched him up from the inside, but Yuuto accepted the pain inflicted on any devil foolish enough to address the Divine, closing Roland's eyelids with a gentle brush of his palm. No matter how he personally felt about God or the Church, Roland had believed, and after the way the man had died he didn't think he could deny the priest at least this much.

The touch of death had sucked out all his passion, but Yuuto knew he couldn't keep kneeling in the dirt in vigil. Grief and guilty would have to be buried for a least a few hours, until Galilei was dead and thrown on the pyre and the rest of the people he'd selfishly dragged along after him were safe.

Ignoring the way the skin of his fingertips burned and peeled, Yuuto unbuttoned the collar of Roland's frock and unlatched the worn steel cross from around his neck. The blond bounced the little necklace in his palm, eying the red welts it left behind in his flesh before nodding sharply and tucking it in his breast pocket.

Yuuto couldn't wear it at the moment – not before he took to the battlefield – but later he could loop it around his own throat and relish in the pain. That was the only penance that he knew how to pay.

* * *

Huddling so close to the ground that she was practically crawling and dragging her belly in the dirt, Tosca moved between the hills of rubble that the hospital had been reduced to. More than once she saw Sasuke or Rias Gremory or Galilei himself soar by overhead, trading curses so strong that they made her huddle down in the soil and hope that none of them noticed her.

She'd first been an experiment, and then later Galilei's lab assistant. Neither of those positions had prepared her for combat on the level everyone else tonight was dueling at. And even though it wasn't exactly her fault, she couldn't stop feeling powerless and angry about the whole thing. Would it have killed Galilei to spend a few hours here and there training her to actually go toe to toe with kind of people that would be hunting him?

Apparently so. The fucking salty cunt couldn't be bothered with anything that didn't involve torturing little children or strapping her down to a table for a fresh round of 'inject the abomination'. Honestly, what a useless piece of shit that man was.

Tosca's throat tingled with a warning, the geas tightening just enough to let her know that her internal ranting was crossing the line into traitor territory. She'd sworn at the oathstone to be loyal, and while that was vague and gave her some wiggle room outright rejecting her self-appointed mentor wasn't strictly kosher.

Son of a bitch.

The geas _squeezed_ , and Tosca passed out for a moment, her vision going black and then fading back in spots. Her lungs burned from lack of oxygen and her brain was probably well on the way to vegetable status, but she was used to that. The white-haired girl just bit her tongue until she tasted blood, forcefully redirecting her thoughts towards her goal as she continued to creep across broken stone and cracked ground.

Making sure to stay low, Tosca skulked her way northeast. She was bound by geas to be loyal to Galilei, and that meant she should be fighting to defend him. But she wasn't strong enough to stand as a titan on the battlefield on her own.

The only way to obey her curse and survive at the same time was to dig through the dirt and locate the Sacred Gear that Galilei had extracted from one of the hundreds of children he'd murdered and use it.

After so many years with all the pain and names running together Tosca couldn't remember who exactly in that cell she'd survived had been the one to give up Blade Blacksmith. That was a blessing itself in her mind, since after she took on the power of Holy Sword Creation she'd rather not be tormented by the memories of her comrades.

Tosca had endured a hell beyond human limits and come out on the other side mostly sane and aware of the value of her own life. She knew that no one who had lived in that hellhole would resent her for taking hold of Blade Blacksmith.

But lack of guilt wasn't equal to lack of awareness, and she'd rather not wake up screaming remembering in detail how Joachim had been vivisected or how Isabella had been melted in a vat of acid so that she could inherit their power.

The moon trailed to the west, slowly falling towards the horizon as the hours of the night seeped away despite the engagement of destiny raging on in the ruins of Galilei's former laboratory.

Sooner or later someone would win, hopefully before the sun rose and exposed them to the humans, but until then Tosca was determined to be a 'loyal' servant that kept her head down until she dug out a weapon to fight with.

In the end the young Italian woman found herself on all fours in the dirt, throwing aside pieces of stone with gasping heaves and digging into the soil with her bare hands.

Tosca tunneled down three feet, earning a thick caking of mud all along her ivory forearms as she sought sacred treasure and profane bounty. She was assuming she'd guessed correctly, as the runes around her neck were telling her to press on.

When the tips of her ragged nails struck steel, Tosca wasn't sure if she should blame her memory or if she should blame the subconscious direction of Galilei's geas. Honestly, she'd been hoping for a job that would let her spend the rest of the battle obeying her curse but staying out of the path of danger.

Digging one hole after another would have been suitably useless while being technically loyal. But apparently, Lady Luck had decided to take a big shit all over her, because on the very first dig Tosca unearthed the slim oblong box that Galilei had stashed the extracted Blade Blacksmith in.

" _Fuck_ me."

"I'd rather not right now."

Tosca's breath hitched, but rather than look up she slid the pad of her thumb along the seam of the sealed box, chanting the short password and injecting a droplet of her own blood in the lock. She didn't want to acknowledge her past face to face until she had to.

Brass hinges creaked as the crate swung open, revealing a miniature silver-blue hammer that didn't seem like it should exist in the mortal world. But she wrapped her filthy hands around it anyway, bearing it up close to her chest like her own child.

"Tosca."

She didn't want to turn in that moment. She didn't want to even _exist_. Between the sky and the hammer Tosca just wanted to disappear and surrender to the grief and the hate and the despair. But in the end she did turn, tears glittering in the thin hairs of her eyelashes. "Isaiah."

The blond grimaced at the name she gave him, but didn't dispute it, allowing her voice to fall into silence in the valley of ruins. "I'm sorry." He said instead, condensing a infinite number of words into a too-short apology. "I'm sorry."

Tosca almost sobbed right then, her heart and bones splintering in her mind as she stood before the only other person that had ever passed through the horrific crucible they'd been born into. But she had a little more steel in her nerves than that, so instead of breaking down she squared her jaw and settled an expectant gimlet eye on the young man she'd cautiously call the other half of her suffering.

" _Win_." She didn't have to tell him what she wanted him to win, or how she wanted him to win. Even years apart, they both were connected deeply enough to understand there was only one road they'd both agree to walk.

The geas drew tight around her neck like a jilted wife, suffocating Tosca without any remorse or hesitancy. But she was beyond even considering renunciation. If death came it would come. But when Isaiah settled his soul deep gaze on her she couldn't choose anything but freedom. So rather than try to draw on the power of the little talisman containing all the potential of Blade Blacksmith in service of her master, she seized Isaiah by the collar and shoved the tiny hammer in his mouth.

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

Pale shards of light cut out in the rough shape of swords whistled through the air like giant darts. A single dead-on hit by a single one of them would be enough to kill a man. Between the sheer size of Galilei's conjured blades and the purifying magic they were made of, even a devil wouldn't be able to survive.

But with the Sharingan glittering in his eyes, Sasuke knew he wasn't in any real danger of being hit. He saw the trajectory of every razor before they even launched, and Galilei wasn't fast enough to overcome the Uchiha's clarity of perception.

For now all he had to do was let the former priest chase him around the ruins and make it look good.

Making sure to dodge the first six glowing swords by a good margin, Sasuke pretended to stumble and just barely moved around the last three. His feigned fumble was enough to keep Galilei's attention, and the man summoned another dozen lances to try and pin him down.

Sasuke spared a single glance to consider the battlefield, and then he was off jumping across the hills of debris with holy magic further shattering the stone behind him.

Rias had worn herself out containing Galilei after the ceiling of his lab caved in and the mad scientist decided to throw a temper tantrum about it. Yuuto and Roland were just _gone_ , buried somewhere under the rubble and in no state to do anything.

So with all of his allies out of the fight, at least temporarily; Sasuke had to play it smart. He needed to either bait Galilei long enough for Rias to regain some of her stamina, or he needed to find an opening and use it to slice the older man's throat.

The road to victory wasn't rooted in strength, but in cunning and ruthlessness. It made Sasuke nostalgic for his glory days as a shinobi. In fact, if he had to draw parallels he'd say Galilei was fairly similar to Orochimaru. Maybe they even shared the same weaknesses.

There was only one way to tell.

Sasuke moved in a wide circuit around a rough mound of debris, keeping one eye on Galilei's eager expression while he searched for open ground.

When the hospital had finally collapsed what was left behind was basically an oblong depression in the earth. The sides of the hole were softened and sloped by the ruins, but it was still visibly rectangular.

If the basin wasn't pockmarked by shallow crevices and divided by hills of steel and stone it would be a straight corridor that was ideal for a head-on full-speed Chidori. Sasuke hadn't ever really used it for that purpose, but he was still aware that Kakashi had originally used it as an assassination technique.

Just because the battlefield wasn't ideal _right now_ for a linear rush didn't mean that it couldn't be.

Galilei was arrogant, exactly like Orochimaru, and with the thrill of the hunt on his tongue the man would continue escalating until he either won or was snapped out of it by a rude awakening.

Settling between two mounds of pale rock, Sasuke waited just long enough for Galilei to notice him. Then he feinted right, then left, and then right again. His legs burned as he leapt back and forth across the same stretch of ground, but when Galilei obliterated the pile of rubble to Sasuke's right, leaving behind nothing but relatively smooth dirt, he was satisfied.

A bitter little smirk pulled at the corners of Sasuke's mouth. Fucking brilliant. Now all he had to do what repeat that maneuver another thirty times and hope Galilei was dumb enough to fall for the same trick over and over.

"I don't understand why you insist on making this more difficult than it has to be." Galilei sighed with faux-sadness, cleaning his glasses on the relatively clean length of his white stole. "Even now, I'm sure I could come to some arrangement with a man of rationalism." As he spoke the former priest walked, stepping carefully over the uneven clay and letting his coal-dark gaze roam cautiously. "It's time to cut your losses and retreat with your mistress, don't you think?"

Sasuke didn't even dignify that with a response. Even if he assumed Galilei was honest about letting him retreat without injury, he couldn't leave Rias or Yuuto behind. And both of them would be the ideal experiments for the crazy bastard to tinker around with.

Someone like Naruto probably would have stood tall and refused loudly and proudly, but that wasn't how Sasuke operated. He might be taller and stronger than his old body had been, but Sasuke's instincts were still the same. He still remembered how to be a ninja.

Crouching low, Sasuke brought his hands to his mouth and cupped his rough palms in a directing circle around his mouth. Sasuke might not be a bonafide student of the mystic arts, but he knew enough bits and pieces to get by.

Smoke billowed from Sasuke's lips, forming a towering cloud of suffocating gray ash that billowed higher and higher with every strained second that crept by. It was like a mist had seeped up from the core of the earth, reeking of sulfur and metal as it formed a choking miasma.

Sasuke spit the ash from his tongue with a grimace before lunging to the side as quietly as he could. In a few seconds Galilei would finish crafting a wind-based spell to clear the field, and by that time Sasuke needed to be gone. Indulging Galilei's sadism to tire him out was a good short-term strategy, but he couldn't just run up the clock until he attained victory.

Not when Yuuto was buried somewhere under all the broken tiles and crumbled plaster.

Finding Rias was Sasuke's priority now. He'd given her long enough to find her second wind, and if he was going to get close enough to Galilei to kill the psychopath then Sasuke needed a distraction of some kind.

* * *

The exhaustion that came with long term spellcasting wasn't quite like anything else. Physical exertion could lead to sore legs or aching arms, but the pain was localized. If Rias had to describe the fatigue that followed enchantment, she'd compare it to the theoretical feeling of every single cell in her body simultaneously crying out for sweet relief.

It wasn't that her arms felt like noodles or that her back hurt. Rather, at a certain point Rias had to draw back because her heart was thundering and the pain was curling around inside of her chest like steel wool.

Rias wondered if she'd bitten off more than she could chew by indulging Yuuto's desperate desire for closure. She wondered who would pay the cost for that particular badly rolled dice.

Sucking in one last steadying breath, Rias steeled herself. There was no point in getting maudlin about it all now. Not when there was only one way forward. So she banished her anxieties and the yearning for Akeno's comforting presence at her back. Then she pushed herself to her feet in one sinuous movement.

White powder coated her palms as Rias braced against the nearest pile of rocks and peered over. It took her a minute of squinting through the slowly roving clouds of dust to spot Galilei ambling about a few hundred feet away. He was moving around guardedly, vaporizing mound after mound of wreckage.

She couldn't see Sasuke or Yuuto anywhere, but she supposed the former priest wouldn't be hunting with such paranoia if they'd both been killed.

But just because they were probably alive didn't mean they weren't hurt, and Rias didn't have it in her to just cower away and wait until her servants were cornered. Narrowing her gaze into a teal glare, Rias stepped down from her little perch and prepared to blow up her little hiding place with as much fanfare as possible.

Rias had only just called up the first few sparks of her ancestral magic when an absolutely filthy hand clapped over her mouth. She fought off the other hand that tried to wrap around her waist, turning about in the circle of her Knight's arms so she could give Yuuto a poisonous stare.

A sheepish look cross Yuuto's beaten and bruised face, and he obliged her by pulling his hands back with an awkward cough.

"Thank you for that." Rias said acidly, fruitlessly trying to wipe away the mixture of sweat, blood, and mud that had been smeared all across her lips. "So much." If their circumstances were less dangerous, she'd probably have launched into a rant about how she was _so_ looking forward to the next week of meals salted with the most _sublime_ of seasonings: essence of battlefield.

But circumstances being what they were, Rias just contented herself with a last angry swipe of her already tattered sleeves.

Yuuto looked worse than she'd hoped, but better than she'd feared Rias decided as she considered her wayward servant. The bruises splotched an ugly purple across his left cheek and down his neck, and his right shoulder was hunched in a way that spoke of muscle tearing. Blood soaked around the dozen holes in his white shirt, and she knew if she looked she'd find shallow lacerations.

But the blond stood tall despite his wounds, and his blue-grey gaze was clearer than it had been in days. His eyes were sad and weighed down by some nameless burden, but they were sane, and it made Rias breathe easier.

Good.

That was _good_.

"Are you ready?" She asked, turning back to the rubble pile deliberately. They didn't have the time for her to ask about Roland or Tosca or the vague tear tracks that carved through the cake of dirt he wore on his face – not while Galilei could come down on them at any moment.

Coughing into the crook of his elbow, Yuuto tried to hide the bright red speckles left behind by his ragged lungs. "I'm fine." He wheezed, wiping away the last traces of saliva from his lips. "It's time to end this."

For a heavy minute Rias considered cutting her losses. Yuuto obviously wasn't fit to fight and Galilei had baited them into his home ground advantage. Even if they could smash through his defenses there was nothing stopping the man from drawing on energy crystal after energy crystal until Rias and her servants were all drained dry.

"I hope you have something up your sleeve."

A secret bitter little smile pulled at the corners of Yuuto's mouth.

* * *

Galilei vaporized yet another loosely settled pile of rubble and fought back the urge to sigh. His efforts to unearth and eliminate his _visitors_ had lost all their luster some time ago. The ex-priest was bored, and the only reason he was still pursuing Isaiah's allies was because he had to.

They'd destroyed his latest experiments, ruined his lab, and very likely set back his efforts to cultivate a useful assistant out of Tosca by a year. Galilei could hardly let them wander away freely after that; no matter what honeyed words he offered Rias Gremory's servant.

Still, at least he would be able to have Isaiah for study once more. The thought cheered Galilei immensely. It was so rare to get such interesting results from a sample he himself had written off as useless. It almost made the fallout of Isaiah's silly little grudge worth it.

Humming cheerily to himself, Galilei destroyed three mounds of debris in quick succession with rough blasts of light magic. The conjuration winded him and failed to reveal where the little pests were hiding, but the scientist knew it was only a matter of time. He'd cleared away more than half of battlefield, and the faint footsteps he sometimes heard proved that his quarry hadn't fled.

The devils were running out of places to hide, and once he flushed them out Galilei would vaporize them with ease.

Or perhaps he wouldn't. They were so beaten down and tired that all they could do was run away from him. At this point they were probably weak enough to capture, and Galilei could easily think of ten different experiments he could run on someone like Rias Gremory. Even that dark-haired servant of hers had exhibited a few interesting traits.

The exorcist was useless, but Galilei supposed that he could hardly expect the universe to reward him more than it already had. Two brand new subjects and a chance to see what Isaiah had become were enough to make him a happy man, despite the destruction of a year's work.

A flicker of light in the corner of his vision was the only warning Galilei was given, and he almost failed to notice it.

Almost.

The dark-eyed scientist turned sharply on the spot, the heel of his right boot digging a little divot in the dust. The magic rose with him, flowing up his spine and down his arms and out into the world. Galilei smiled at the translucent pane of golden glass that spun into being and deflected Isaiah's overhand blow with a musical ring.

Galilei cocked an eyebrow as he forced Isaiah back, engaging the boy in a dance of sword and sorcery. Every time they clashed he heard that same lovely little note humming just on the edge of his senses, and an eager grin sprouted across his lips. He had been suspicious at first, but the longer he engaged Isaiah the surer he became that the child was clutching a holy sword in his battered fist.

How _fascinating_. Isaiah was wielding Blade Blacksmith like he'd been born with it. There was no sign of the distilled Sacred Gear when the blond had to conjure up another sacred blade to replace the one Galilei eventually destroyed. The ex-priest wondered if that kind of true merging was just a result of natural compatibility or if Isaiah had somehow discovered how to not just use but actually absorb an extracted Sacred Gear.

Both possibilities had thrilling implications for his research, and Galilei couldn't find it in himself to even be upset by Tosca's obvious betrayal. The girl might have been less trained than he thought she was, but the geas was still active and he'd just need to be more thorough in the future.

"Is this a new development, or have you been able to use Holy Swords since you became a devil?" Galilei gave into his bubbling curiosity and idly questioned his wayward experiment. "Because I must say Isaiah, you've truly exceeded expectations. I knew you were a special one."

Impotent rage twisted Isaiah's face, and his pupils dilated with a sudden rush of furious adrenaline. "That." He muttered quietly, keeping his crippled arm tucked into his side as he switched out his glittering consecrated steel for dull demonic iron. "Isn't my name!"

Isaiah's curved scimitar whirled up in a gut carving slash, screeching orange sparks as it skittered across the surface of Galilei's shield.

It didn't really matter if the boy used holy swords or demon swords, because the result of his useless efforts were the same. The pointlessness of it all made Galilei roll his eyes, and he decided that it was time to end things. He could test Isaiah's development another time.

The aged scientist took one step forward, raising his hands to deliver the final strike.

And the air suddenly throbbed with impatient scarlet destruction.

* * *

A storm raged in his lungs, tight and sharp and desperate.

Every breath seemed to make Yuuto swell up until all that was left of him was half-forgotten spells and skinned fingers. But his swords remained, hefty like the entire weight of the universe dragged them down.

Blade Blacksmith had nestled into his heart like it always belonged there, and that was enough to make the blond want to scream. Yuuto had clung to the idea that holy swords didn't belong in his hands for years. It had been a point of pride for him, rejecting the blades like he rejected the hold Galilei tried to have over him.

Bile bubbled up in his throat and Yuuto wanted to heave.

Enough. He could fall to pieces later. Right now the battlefield was calling.

Yuuto _moved_ , dropping his latest broken off hilt to the ground and forging the next one in one smooth motion. Crackling golden fire followed him, sizzling hot and close as he ducked and flowed into a whistling uppercut that nicked Galilei. Tiny spots of blood stained the ex-priest's frock, and it made Yuuto even hungrier for victory.

Soon enough he'd sink his teeth into it.

The small sting drove Galilei into a rage if the way the man's burning magic blazed even higher was any indication, but Yuuto pressed on. He wasn't afraid of the bastard's anger – not when he had Rias' Power of Destruction trailing after him like a crimson mantle. The red mist drove back Galilei's flames when they got too close, protecting his flanks and letting Yuuto focus entirely on offense.

This was how it was supposed to be: him in front with his sword in hand and her at the rear working the angles like the magician she was. The two of them were enough to have Galilei on the ropes now that he'd swallowed his overweening pride and allowed her to help him.

The price that had been paid for his arrogance made Yuuto feel ashamed. Roland's life and Tosca's pain were his cross to bear now. Hopefully that would be enough.

Keeping his crippled arm against his side, Yuuto bared his teeth like a rabid animal. "Are you having fun?" he taunted, aiming a stab at Galilei's fleshy thigh. His sword failed to connect, but that didn't really matter.

Not this time.

Electricity chirped madly, shrieking murderous intent as Sasuke was suddenly right in their faces, the Sharingan spinning as he wreathed his fingers in white lightning and struck hard.

Yuuto had already pushed Galilei off-balance, and Rias' power seeped into everyone crevice with omnipresent certainty. So it shouldn't be a surprise that after hours of constant combat and the synergy of a Knight and HIS Mistress that Sasuke's sudden appearance could cut deeply.

But even so, Yuuto had to admit he was shocked when Sasuke's Chidori cut a long furrow across the fleshy weight of Galilei's abdomen. Years of lusting for revenge and building up his former tormentor as a supreme obstacle to overcome left Yuuto dazed and confused when blood finally splattered across his pale face.

Copper curled in Yuuto's nostrils, so hefty and intoxicating that his numb brain totally missed whatever angry curse escaped Galilei's mouth. The sadistic scientist spoke, his thick lips pale and grey with emotion. But Yuuto couldn't quite stitch reality together. He didn't understand those words.

Not when he knew deep in his bones that the end was finally at hand.

The blond teen moved like a man under hypnosis. Yuuto couldn't feel pain, or fear, or despair when he stepped. Maybe he'd been cursed with some poisonous hex, or maybe his mind was finally shaking to pieces. But Yuuto took up his swords despite his ruined shoulder, demonic metal in one hand and sacred steel in the other.

Sword Birth and Blade Blacksmith.

Wielding two diametrically opposed Sacred Gears should have made him nauseous. It should have torn Yuuto apart until nothing was left of him but sickened ashes and a cautionary tale. But Sacred Gears were forged out of God and desire, and that mattered more than Manichaeism. Yuuto wanted to be strong, and he wanted to be more than he'd been.

A holy sword hung at his broken right, a demonic blade was raised at his left, and all around Yuuto was the defensive scarlet streamers of Rias' energy. He should have been torn apart by the contradiction, but he endured, and that was how Yuuto knew.

_I am a Knight of the House of Gremory._

_I am a Knight of the House of Gremory._

_I am a Knight of the House of Gremory._

Ruby pommels bloomed from the bare hilts of his swords, swelling like throbbing beads of gore. The transformation wasn't overly dramatic – his blades didn't stain red and vibrant – but Yuuto could feel the tense vibrations of the Power of Destruction weaving through him.

He'd sworn on his existence to be her servant, and her power now lived in him.

When Yuuto broke into his last aggressive stance and sliced down it was with the expectation of victory. Galilei's shields were rent under him, leaving nothing but motes of light and golden filament as Yuuto's swords tore through the ex-priest's protection.

For half a heartbeat Yuuto's steel-blue gaze met Galilei's hot obsidian orbs.

Then Sasuke was there, vermillion blooming in his eyes like a venomous flower. Every motion seemed perfectly choreographed, from the way the Pawn slipped through the last remnants of Galilei's barriers to the way he buried his fingers in the former archbishop's ashy crown and shoved the man's meaty neck down until the accidental guillotine of Yuuto's swords beheaded him.

* * *

Tosca woke up with the urge to scream, her bruised and abused trachea burning so violently that she swallowed back her words and despite the thick taste of iron on her tongue. Everything hurt, seething with hot pulses that rippled up and down her spine.

"You're awake. Good."

Squinting through her gummy eyelashes, Tosca found herself peering at Rias Gremory's exhausted and closed-off expression.

The devil was lounging beside the bed in a beaten old armchair, propping her feet up on the mattress and holding herself in a way that betrayed at least one fractured rib. The redhead looked like she had been to hell and back, and despite the tired greeting didn't seem all that interested in a chat.

Which was fine. If Rias was still alive and Tosca wasn't being strangled into unconsciousness by her geas, it was obviously because Galilei had finally gotten what he'd deserved. Her neck was clean in a way it hadn't been in years.

Tosca probably should have been celebrating that thought, but she was too numb for it. She just felt ragged and wrecked on a bone-deep level, and she didn't have the energy for something like victory.

Instead she just tucked her realizations in a box in the back of her head and turned to study the cheap motel room she'd woken up in.

Blunt off-white walls caged them all in, and a boxy little tv was perched on a rickety old shelf that had been hammered into the far corner. The air was full of a slightly musty smell that hinted of mildew, and a faint sputtering noise revealed that someone was taking a shower.

All in all, not the most luxurious place to wake up, but not the worst she'd slept in either. At least she wasn't strapped down to a metal table again.

Wincing at the stiff pain in her back, Tosca gingerly rolled onto her other side so she wouldn't have to awkwardly interact with the devil woman she'd never had a proper conversation with. They could just silently agree to ignore each other until the fugue was gone and Tosca felt ready to live again.

Of course, turning over meant she came face to face with Isaiah's fitfully sleeping body, but the white-haired girl supposed she couldn't win them all. Panic and confusion reared up in her gut, but she ruthlessly stuffed in back down with distant detachment. She wasn't ready for a future of freedom and choices.

Soon enough she'd have to be, but right now Tosca just wanted to curl up and stop existing for a while.

Licking her dried lips, Tosca dimly noted that someone had taken the effort to clean her face off and heal the gashes in her lips. Which probably should have left her feeling a bit violated, but she couldn't muster the energy to care about it. She didn't care about anything.

She closed her eyes and slept.

* * *

The clock chimed midnight, ringing in a low mournful tune that bounced off the kitchen walls. Koneko frowned at the sound and sipped at her mug of milk, wondering what idiot had thought it would be a great idea to mark every hour with a funeral song.

It was almost depressing in a bizarre way. Like, maybe there really was some moron that didn't deserve to live out there in some factory assembling clocks in an effort to spread his negativity across the world.

A soft chuckle escaped her pink lips, and Koneko narrowed a suspicious amber glare on the carton of milk she'd left on the counter. She was feeling a little off and it wouldn't be the first time Naruto had decided to spike her milk with vodka.

That bastard was just asking for an underwear drawer full of tuna again.

The jingling of keys in a lock broke the stream of Koneko's silly thoughts, and the Rook gulped down the rest of her milk before going to investigate. It was probably just Gasper returning from a late-night fast food run, but that didn't mean she should be careless. Keys _could_ be stolen after all.

Frowning at the grinding sound of someone trying the wrong key in the door, Koneko flipped the latch and twisted the knob. "The key for the front door has a little triangle carved into it."

"I'll try to remember that." Rias replied, hunching her shoulders and slinking through the entryway like a sad little puppy. The sight of her mistress leading a parade of whipped and sore teenagers made Koneko blink in shock.

Where had Roland wandered off to? Why did they all look like they'd been beaten half to death? And who was the cringing white-haired girl that Rias had dragged home?

Koneko choked back those questions, eyeing the splotchy yellow bruises that wound across Rias's cheeks and mottled Yuuto's arms purple. They were too wounded to handle the force of her curiosity right now.

Slipping her hands into the pockets of her pajamas, Koneko stepped back and sunk into the shadows of the hallway. Out of sight and out of mind was what she needed to be right now.

She watched as her friends threw off dusty boots and ragged jackets, leaving them in a messy pile that someone would have to clean up in the morning. She watched as Yuuto took the new girl by the arm and steered her up the stairs in search of a guest room. She watched as Sasuke and Rias made their way to the redhead's room.

And she watched as Rias vanished inside and Sasuke seemed to struggle against the urge to follow.

Koneko tucked her observations away for another time. In the morning she'd think more deeply on what all the unconscious gestures meant and what implications they had going forward.

"Come." She breathed lowly, taking Sasuke by the elbow and breaking the Pawn out of his dazed contemplation. It only took a nudge to convince him to move, and keeping her fingers wrapped tightly around the crook of Sasuke's arm Koneko led him down the dimly lit corridor and into his room.

"What happened."

The question escaped her mouth the moment the door clicked shut behind them, flat and hard-edged like a demand. Which wasn't how she wanted it to sound, but Koneko couldn't take back her words now.

Sasuke only blinked, considering the nekomata with a cool dark stare that revealed nothing. He didn't seem visibly annoyed, but sometimes it was hard to tell with him. The silence stretched on between them, tense and electric until at last the corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched up with something like fond exasperation.

Maybe Rias and Yuuto weren't able to take the pressure of her nosiness, but Sasuke certainly could.

"Roland's dead." The Uchiha declared blandly, turning away and plodding over to his bed. He kept speaking even as he sunk down on the mattress and started peeling his socks off. "Galilei is dead. The girl is a former experiment too. Name is Tosca."

The lack of emotion and limited details would have driven Naruto into a frothing mess of curiosity, but Koneko appreciated the short and concise speech. She and Sasuke were the same in that regard – they both wanted people to get right to the point. "And Yuuto?" she prodded, stepping close and accepting Sasuke's top when he pulled it off.

A quick glance told her that the blue shirt was too ripped and stained to be worth keeping, and Koneko balled it up and tossed it in the little wastebasket in the corner of the room.

Sasuke smirked at her laziness but didn't comment on it. "He'll be fine." He answered, removing his belt and throwing the leather band on top of the nearby desk.

Yuuto _would_ be fine, which meant that he wasn't at the moment. Still, he couldn't be so bad off if Sasuke was so confident the blond would pull through. Koneko decided that she'd give Yuuto a bit of space for a couple of days, but not act like anything was different.

"And Rias?"

Sasuke twitched, and that was enough for her to know. "Be careful." The Rook reminded him, moving around so she could pull down the sheets of his bed. Cloth rustled as Sasuke stripped fully, and he didn't say anything about her warning.

He didn't have to. They both knew the stakes that were raised by his choices.

Koneko kept her back to him, giving him enough privacy to drag his exhausted body into bed without worrying about wandering eyes.

Once she was sure he was fully covered, Koneko left without another word. She hadn't gotten all the answers she wanted, but she'd gotten enough. Her makeshift family would remain intact, with the addition of one of Yuuto's friends. Everything would go back to normal after a bit of an adjustment period.

She just hoped Sasuke and Rias were wise enough to keep their sex life under control.


	17. Chapter 17

Tosca tucked a wad of well-chewed gum in the little space between her teeth and her cheek, letting the last bits of peppermint flavor seep into her saliva as she slapped down another strip of tape. It took three more pieces of sticky plastic to seal the cardboard box, and after she finished she scribbled ' _Naruto's Breakables_ ' along the side in black permanent marker.

"I'll take that." Gasper muttered, pinning his hair out of his eyes with a cheap yellow plastic clip before stealing the box away and fleeing the room.

Rolling her eyes at Gasper's inability to put any real muscle into their packing, Tosca bit her lip and considered Naruto's half-emptied room.

They were moving down to Kyoto tomorrow, and since she'd never been forced to enroll in Kuoh Academy it was her responsibility to pack up most of their belongings while her friends finished their high school careers and suffered through graduation.

It was a sweaty little job, but at least Tosca didn't have to spend her time typing up stupid essays or standing around as Sona Sitri droned on about scholastic values. Her time with Galilei had taught her all she needed to know as far as academics went, and it was a relief not to have to waste her time sitting around in some mundane classroom surrounded by a bunch of ignorant children.

"Box up the clothes." She ordered Gasper when he returned, deciding there was no way in hell she was going to be folding Naruto's boxers. She might have agreed to be his Knight when he offered, but she hadn't agreed to touch his unmentionables.

Scanning over the bare room one last time, Tosca decided that she could leave Gasper to handle the remaining odds and ends. There was nothing to make him sweat or chip one of his green-painted nails after all.

"I'll get a start on Ravel's room." She told the cross-dressing Bishop, rolling her eyes at the boy's mumbled complaints as she tromped into the room across the hall.

Tosca eyed the blonde's girlish pink sheets for a moment, weighing where exactly she wanted to start. The books seemed like the safest bet for now, and after whipping out her phone the white-haired young woman fired off a text to Ravel.

' _Starting ur room now, better not find any dildos'_

' _fuck off'_

Snorting at her friend's reply, Tosca slipped her beaten Samsung mobile in the front pocket of her jeans and went to work. Ravel was a mouthy little bitch, so if she had anything to hide the blond would be warning Tosca off to make sure that the Knight didn't snoop into her porno stash.

It only took a few minutes to tape up a box and start stacking Ravel's books away. Half the titles Tosca picked up looked like they belonged in a museum, and the other half made her suspect that Naruto's fiancé was a closet archeologist.

' _Why do I have to do this cant you just pay someone to do it'_

' _because you were too cool for school and now menial labor is your only skill in life'_

Tosca laughed at Sasuke's sarcastic jibe, wondering if he was having a free period or if he was just fiddling with his cellphone during class.

She'd decided their little fight was _mostly_ water under the bridge after Galilei was killed, but Tosca still owed him for a broken nose. The temptation to pack in some onions with his clothes was strong.

Gasper would probably even help.

Squeezing a tattered copy of _War and Peace_ into the first cardboard box, Tosca slapped on a hefty strip of duct tape and wondered how exactly she'd transitioned from a mad scientist's assistant to an unpaid errand girl. The contrast between the life she lived now and the one she used to have sometimes struck her with surreal amusement.

Honestly, it was all Yuuto's fault. The first few days after he'd dragged her to Japan had been tense and awkward. They didn't know how to interact with each other after so long, but that hadn't stopped the Knight from sticking to her like a barnacle, and she hadn't had the heart to cut ties and try to make her way on her own. Then Naruto had gotten tired of all the moping around and asked her outright to stay around as his Knight.

It had all been so neat and tidy that Tosca couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Her life had been a series of hurdles and the fact that the universe suddenly dropped an easy solution to her problems in her lap felt wrong. The only reason her position felt right _now_ was that over the past year and a half Tosca had come to learn that Knight or not, Naruto didn't actually trust her.

That little detail assuaged her paranoia about too-convenient answers.

Oh, the redhead was _nice_ enough. He never asked Tosca to do anything she didn't want to do. He made sure she always had money if she wanted to buy herself a treat. He made sure to include her in the daily life of their household. Overall Naruto had proven himself to be a better master than Galilei a hundred times over.

But Naruto's kindness didn't quite mask the way how sometimes when she walked into a room everyone went silent. His generosity didn't make the oblique references the others made any less stinging. Tosca had become a Knight of the House of Gremory, but that didn't stop her friends from keeping secrets from her. She was still an outsider, even if they didn't deliberately try to make her feel that way.

That was fine though, because Tosca still wasn't sure she wanted to be on the inside anyway. The distance kept her heart safe, and that was more important than her curiosity or her pride. The last time she'd let herself trust anyone without reserve she'd found herself strapped down on a metal table with a crazy scientist poking around her insides.

For now she was content just to watch.

* * *

A deep chill made its way over Kyoto, freezing the air with an unexpected gasp of winter's revenge before the climate had to make way for the deep warmth of summer. More than one child of the thousand-year capital had donned sweaters and jackets to deal with the cold evening, but Grayfia stood on her balcony undaunted.

Her husband's campaigns had deployed Grayfia all across the human world, and after braving everything from the screeching heat of Arabia to the crushing cold of the Greenland Ice Sheet a bit of poor weather in Kyoto was nothing.

Squinting at the black shapes of the distant mountains that she could see over the lurid electric lights of the city, Grayfia placed a slim black cigar between her pale pink lips and lit up the cancer stick. Maybe it was a pathetic indulgence for a devil of her caliber, but she still craved the smothering musk of burning tobacco from time to time. It reminded her of bloodier, less complicated times.

"What a filthy habit."

Grayfia considered turning around and throwing down a steel-edged insult, but despite her internal bitterness she was still in the city as a diplomat. Even supposedly informal meetings had their impact on formal relations between their governments, and Grayfia knew the Gremory clan couldn't afford bad blood with Kyoto.

Not at this juncture anyway.

"My husband says the same thing." The silver-eyed woman murmured instead, turning her back to the Kyoto skyline and leaning against the railing lazily. Between her loose muscles and her unbound hair Grayfia was stunning example of casual demonic beauty. The blazing cigar bobbing in her pretty mouth didn't detract from her appearance. Instead it only leant her a roguish air that made the famous ice queen approachable.

Yasaka smirked indulgently, her bountiful hips swaying with every step as she crept closer to the Queen of Annihilation. The kitsune purred, crossing her arms and leaning against the marble balcony in a way that accentuated her enormous bust. "Men usually mean well, but the poor dears don't quite understand."

The instinct to snap back at the blonde and explain how exactly her husband understood everything about her from darkest shames to the brightest triumphs was strong, but Grayfia stilled her tongue. She hadn't ascended to Kyoto for the sake of defending Sirzechs' image. So if letting Yasaka make a few oblique insults was the cost of doing business, she could bite back her anger.

Humor burned a deeper amber in Yasaka's gaze, and the priestess turned around to brace her back loosely against the curve of the balcony railing. In anyone else that movement might have signaled a lazy kind of fondness. But Yasaka wasn't her friend and Grafia was very aware that their every interaction was just part of a greater game between Kyoto and Gehenna.

There was no such thing as true allies in a world where grudges could last for centuries and plans could be enacted across the space of a thousand years.

"Will you be staying long?"

Grayfia inhaled slowly, letting the mild menthol flavor of her imported Cubana-Switch sizzle over her tongue. It was a bit petty of her to make Yasaka wait on her reply, but the silver-haired woman was feeling spiteful.

"Until the end of the week." She allowed several minutes later, smirking a bit at the little twitch of irritation she could switch fluttering in the priestess' painstakingly groomed eyebrows.

"How lovely." The thousand-watt smirk that accompanied that particular platitude was enough to warn Grayfia that the kitsune had absolutely no intention of letting her have a moment's peace for the rest of her stay in the city. Every single day was going to be bursting with tea ceremonies, expensive dinners, and pointless conversations that were choreographed to generate suicidal tendencies.

It was enough to make her want to punch Yasaka's smug little face. She'd come to Kyoto for the chance to help her son and sister-in-law properly settle into their new home, not to indulge the mistress of the Kyoto youkai. But her husband was Sirzechs Lucifer, and so her presence at any event would be screaming proof to the whole world that the alliance between Kyoto and the Gremory Clan was healthy and strong.

"I'm sure it would be wonderful if we took a day to visit the spa. Oh, and perhaps we could invite a few of my good friends out for dinner? The children are old enough to look after themselves for a few hours, wouldn't you say?"

The weight of her brand-new appointments settling on her shoulders was enough to make Grayfia want to scream. If she had one wish it would be to approach every problem in her life with a bland application of brute force. She could play the diplomat when she had to, but Grayfia loathed having to do so. Everything was so much easier when she could just bash her way through it and not have to worry about people's expectations.

"Fine."

Damn Zeoticus for his meddling. If he hadn't decided that Kyoto would be an excellent gift for her son she wouldn't be in this mess.

Yasaka grinned cheerily, stepping closer to take Grayfia's hands between her own. "That's perfect." She crooned, deliberately ignored the sour smile that twisted the other woman's mouth. "I'll be in touch. Oh, we're going to have so much fun together." The kitsune promised sweetly before flouncing away with a cocky bounce in her steps.

One last drag of tobacco smoke blazed over her tongue, and with a sigh Grayfia tossed the stub of her cigar off the balcony. "What nonsense." A careless little twist of magical power vaporized her cigar butt before it fell to the ground, because the last thing she needed now was to be nagged at with complaints of littering.

What a horror show. It made her long for the days of her youth. Life as a deluded puppet of the Old Satans might have been painful and gory and full of despair, but at least the insurrection hadn't required her to rub elbows with people she'd rather murder painfully.

* * *

"You can't keep putting them off."

"I'm aware." Gabriel shot back tetchily, folding the cover over her lime-green clipboard and tucking the summarized research notes under her arm. "But I'm putting them off _this_ time. Just inform the ambassador that I have urgent prior obligations."

A dubious expression flashed across Metatron's face, but the seraph nodded and left to deliver her message anyway. It wasn't in the nature of an angel to lie directly, even when it was technically possible, and so if Gabriel claimed to have business that needed to be dealt with immediately then few people would doubt her.

All it took was a creative interpretation of the truth. She _did_ have a prior meeting planned with Uriel to discuss the latest development related to Valper Galilei's scattered research notes. That meeting _was_ pressing as far as she was concerned, even if no one else would assign that kind of weight to it. So if she was once more forced to deny the ambassador of the Matsuyama youkai, then that was just bad luck and good governance.

Hopefully if Gabriel kept putting them off and denying their concerns about Kyoto's expansionism they would take a hint and leave Heaven alone. Gehenna might want to play the Great Game in Japan, but Heaven had no desire to get involved in that particular quagmire.

Even if it seemed increasingly likely that they would have to do _something_.

Shaking her head at Zeoticus Gremory's recklessness, Gabriel pushed all thoughts of devil warmongering out of her head and stalked across the pristine garden in search of Uriel.

The heady scent of roses filled her nose as the blonde weaved between carefully tended bushes and old growth thickets. It was a nostalgic aroma that Gabriel had taken in a million times over thousands of years. She would never forget that the Fourth Heaven was the True Eden, and the little hidden gazebo Uriel had summoned her to was as familiar to her as the backs of her own hands.

What wasn't familiar was the sight of Venelana Gremory primly perched on a well-worn bench of oak, sitting in the Garden of Eden like she belonged there as she daintily sipped tea and spoke across the round table in low tones to a carefully relaxed Michael.

Gabriel missed a step as she crossed the threshold, recovering so quickly that a human would never have been able to witness her slip. But Venelana was hardly human, and the little twitch to the Duchess' smile screamed to Gabriel that her split-second shock had been noted and filed away in some corner of her steel-trap mind.

The angel didn't hesitate to banish the clipboard tucked under her arm to an extra-dimensional pocket, recognizing that she was stepping into a very different conversation than the one she'd expected. Roland might have died to defeat Galilei, and it might have taken days to piece together the madman's tattered notes, and it might have required some backroom dealing with the Gremory clan to confirm the kill, but none of that mattered at the moment.

Gabriel could practically taste the phantom reek of blood in the air. Mictlan had brought war back to the supernatural world after decades of a watchful peace, and Gehenna seemed ready to carry that torch. Compared to that the records of some crazed human scientist hardly mattered.

Forcing a polite smile, Gabriel moved to sit next to Michael. "Venelana! It's been too long." She greeted their guest cheerily, patting her husband's hand in a casually affectionate way in an effort to convey friendly warmth. "How are the children?"

The curve of Venelana's mouth turned wicked with remembered fondness, and the look she offered the two angels was lax and languid. It reminded Gabriel of nothing less than a smug and satisfied cat, and that had her instincts tingling with caution. "Sirzechs is the same as ever. He works too hard and Grayfia doesn't make much of an effort to remind him to relax from time to time."

"It could be worse." Michael commented idly, hooking his finger in the little porcelain handle of his teacup. "He could be doing the opposite and never work a day in his life."

Venelana cocked a slim eyebrow, watching as the archangel lifted the cup to his lips. "True enough." She agreed lightly, tapping the polished surface of the table with one gloved finger. "Rias is shaping up to be the same way it seems. I blame my husband for their workaholic ways."

In another setting that complaint probably would have just been the stereotypical grumbling of a reluctantly amused wife. But sitting in the Garden of Eden with the complaints of the Edo youkai fresh in her ears, Gabriel couldn't see it as anything but a gauntlet thrown down between them.

"Well, he is an _interesting_ character." Gabriel murmured, bumping her leg against Michael's under the table.

The light in Venelana's violet gaze burned, cold fire and venom swelling like the tides in her eyes. "Indeed. Sometimes he makes rather dynamic choices, don't you think?" she commented idly, brushing her flaxen bangs to the side with a lazy wave.

Michael shifted, leaning forward to settle his elbows on the table in a way that emphasized the broad expanse of his chest beneath his sky-blue tunic. It was a less than subtle reminder that he was more than a politician. He was a warrior and a general, and sometimes that meant brutally cutting to the heart of the matter. "I think it might be ideal to dispense with the pleasantries."

The drawn-out silence that hung between them practically thrummed with anxious energy. A younger woman would have hated it, but Gabriel had come to be quite familiar with the negotiating tactics of Venelana Gremory. She wasn't unnerved by the subtle promise of violence.

"Alright." The silent storm passed, and Venelana was all charm and affability once again. "Let's just speak frankly then, shall we?"

Gabriel squinted at the devil, considering how exactly she wanted to approach things.

While the Gremory Clan were obviously courting disaster with the way they'd been behaving, they hadn't technically done anything wrong. There was no law against deepening business ties with a foreign faction, and everything they'd done in Kuoh was within their rights as per the agreement they inherited from the Belial Clan. No one could _force_ Gehenna to make nice with Edo, and Kyoto was responsible for its own decisions.

On top of that, Gabriel wasn't sure that she opposed a confrontation between the youkai factions to begin with. From a strategic standpoint, Heaven stood to benefit from a weaker and more divided Japan. Heaven was only as strong as it was because they'd made a habit of knocking down all potential competitors during the past few thousand years. The youkai could use a bit of humbling right now.

"I think," the blonde started slowly, sparing a glance for her husband as she organized her thoughts. "That telling us what you'd like us to do would be a good place to start."

Venelana shrugged, picking at a loose thread on the back of her left glove. "Nothing at all. This is our business and we'll handle it. We'd just like to be sure that you've washed your hands of the whole thing. The Grigori have already agreed to play neutral. If Heaven can do the same, then we'll be satisfied."

Which was an irritatingly convenient proposal, if Gabriel was honest. Civil conflicts were messy and always had the chance to escalate into a mess that dragged in all bystanders. Gabriel wasn't afraid of war, but she was tired of it, and she knew Michael felt the same way. Not having to do anything at all was a neat and tidy solution to their little conundrum.

A little _too_ neat and tidy.

"We can make that promise." Michael acknowledged with cool courtesy, his back ramrod straight as he studied Venelana's indifferent expression with a penetrating gaze. "But I'm not sure that we should. At the very least, we'd like to know what you're trying to accomplish before we agree to anything."

Venelana's amethyst shifted, focusing at a distant point over Michael's shoulder as she took a moment to _consider_. Trust between devils and angels was a fragile thing, strangled by too many years of death and hatred. Even when they liked one another on a personal level, old instincts stifled cooperation on a professional one.

It wouldn't be an easy decision for Venelana to stop holding her cards close to her chest. The two seraphim understood that, which is why they waited patiently until the brunette came to a decision.

"Yasaka has a daughter."

And Gabriel threw back her head and laughed, because suddenly she understood everything, and her earlier thoughts of splintered youkai factions seemed so hilariously naïve. Zeoticus had much more gall than she'd thought.

"How ambitious."

* * *

Years of careful governing by the Ouroboros Dragon had transformed Mahatmapraba from a smoking pit of savage desolation into a vibrant colony. Ophis' power had chased away the smog and lit up the sky with a nurturing artificial atmosphere.

The only thing that remained the same was the realm's cheerless grey soil and lurid pink skies, but even those were broken up by greenery and cheerfully bouncing clouds.

It made Le Fay a little bitter on behalf of humanity, if she wanted to be completely honest. She didn't blame the dragon god for anything, but the apathetic ease the dragon god had terraformed Mahatmapraba with was kinda irritating. Something that humans would weep and die for in the millions was just an afterthought for higher level beings like Ophis.

"Are you done gawking? Or do you need another few hours?"

The blonde witch pursed her lips, turning away from the bay windows to glare at her brother. He peered down at her with his usual indulgent expression, mocking her with the fond sarcasm only close siblings shared.

"It's fine." She muttered, falling into step beside Arthur as they strode back through the oakwood hallways and past glittering gemstone lights. "I was just getting used to this week's scenery."

"A useless endeavor, don't you think?"

"I guess so." Arthur had a point. Despite the rich décor of the manse they'd been recently shuffled into, Le Fay knew that they'd be gone before the end of the week. Ophis had a strange habit of wanting to shuffle between the dozens of mansions she'd had built for her own private use, and she demanded that Vali's squad follow her everywhere.

If Ophis didn't have that ability to utterly obliterate her entire existence with a wave of the hand, Le Fay would probably call it 'paranoia' or even 'insanity'. But since it was the Ouroboros Dragon dragging them around the witch was willing to smile and swallow any complaints she might have had about the inconvenience.

Not for the first time she wondered if it had been such a smart idea to abandon the Pendragon household for the Khaos Brigade. Their parents might have been stuffy and boring but at least they weren't totally nutters. Half the time Le Fay felt like she'd be murdered in the night by their boss in a manic fit of lunacy.

Still, it wasn't like she could do anything about it now. She and Arthur had signed their souls over. There was no escape.

"Okay so." Le Fay clapped, locking away all her negative thoughts and refocusing on something more enjoyable. "I was in San Francisco the other day and they're having a convention that I think we'd be totally suited for."

"Let me guess, yet another version of King Arthur and his crazed incest loving witch of a sister?"

"Shut _up_ , Vali. We've never cosplayed as that ever, but you still keep talking about it. I'm starting to think you're projecting."

Scoffing at her sassy tone, Vali shoved his hands in his pockets and sidled up to the two Pendragons with a slouch to his spine. "Yeah, or maybe I'm just reading your mind. Maybe I'm digging up all your dirty little secrets. _Maybe_ I'm just that good."

"Alternatively, you're a deluded egomaniac with middle schooler syndrome. Just so you know - _no_ , your mind doesn't make it real."

Arthur chuckled at their byplay, shaking his head as he took the lead and let them trail behind and bicker at a dull roar.

The pervasive presence of Ophis in the manor sunk into the backs of their minds, calling them to her like a siren. The little argument was just Vali's way of coping with that pressure, and Le Fay always indulged him.

As they turned the last corner and entered a luxurious drawing room, Le Fay and Vali fell silent. There was just something about Ophis that demanded it. If Le Fay had to call it something, she'd probably label it as a terrible majesty. Even in the form of a child Ophis had the suffocating gravity of an elder god and a clinical chill to match.

"You're late." Ophis greeted blandly, turning away from the window and settling her young-old gaze on her servants. Despite the admonishment there was no anger in the god's child-like face, and it made the little ball of tension that had been gathering between Le Fay's shoulder blades ease just a little.

She liked the Ouroboros Dragon at times, but as a witch trained by the Golden Dawn Le Fay was too aware of the vast power distance between herself and Ophis. The dragon god was a nice person when she was in a generous mood, but Le Fay could never fully relax around her.

It was a problem her brother and Vali didn't seem to share, since the two young men just shrugged and lazily threw themselves down in a pair of plush antique Victorian chairs.

"I was having a nap." Vali justified breezily, crossing his legs and lounging with regal ease. "You know how it is." The White Dragon Emperor was a man of simple pleasures, and with no battles to be had he could be pretty indolent; to Le Fay's displeasure.

Honestly, sometimes she wondered what she saw in him beyond the pretty face and the rockin' bod.

A little befuddled furrow drew Ophis' eyebrows tight, but it seemed the girl didn't care to tear Vali a new one. She just stared at him for a brief moment before flitting her focus to the Pendragon siblings.

Le Fay was just starting to sweat at the agelessness in those grey eyes when the dragon god finally decided to get to the matter at hand.

"You will travel to Romania and convince the Carmilla Faction to join the Khaos Brigade." Ophis declared, drifting closer to Arthur and peering at the blond swordsman with detached interest. "And you will lead them."

Le Fay grimaced as her brother readjusted his glasses and flashed Vali a smarmy little smirk. Arthur was probably the most strategic choice for leader, but she wasn't looking forward to listening to the hours of passive aggressive sniping the half-devil was going to inflict on her poor ears.

"Are we going to join their war then? I'm so ready for that." Vali rolled his shoulders, giving off a sickening pop that made Le Fay want to gag. If he wasn't totally focused on Ophis with that battle maniac look on his face, she'd assume he did it just to gross her out. "I bet the King of the Vampires would be worth fighting."

Ophis' fingers spasmed in a sudden anxious gesture that drew in their attention like lightning bolts to a rod. It was such an outright human gesture that the mortals couldn't help but take notice.

"No." the shapeshifter bit out, shifting to hide her pale little hands behind her back. "We are not forming an alliance. This is either annexation and relocation if they accept unanimously, or defections if Maria Carmilla is hostile."

Which was… odd, Le Fay had to admit. It wasn't strictly unwelcome, since Le Fay didn't want to spend the next few years running around the Romanian countryside fighting a war against the Tepes Faction, but it was _strange_. She'd pegged Ophis as a whimsical conqueror who would have crushed King Dracula under her heel rather than just let him win his war while she took in the Carmilla Faction as a court-in-exile.

It wasn't arrogant enough.

"Why?"

It took the blonde a wrenching instant to realize that _she_ was the one that had spoken up, causing a terrifyingly irritated expression to flood Ophis' delicate features. The Ouroboros Dragon was scary enough when she came across as an ancient eldritch being that cared about nothing. This suddenly too-human Ophis that wore confusion and self-hatred like a cloak made Le Fay want to run away screaming.

And if the way Vali and Arthur were suddenly holding their breaths was any indication, Le Fay wasn't alone in her distress. Something was wrong with the dragon god, because as the years went on Ophis had these unstable human _moments_ more and more frequently.

Gods were not meant to grow mortal hearts, and when they did the universe held its breath.

"The Tepes Faction is tied to the Gremory Clan." Ophis murmured, visibly forcing an icy façade. It was such an obvious attempt to conceal things that Le Fay found herself even more on edge. "And it is not my intent to enter into a conflict with them at this time."

Then before anyone could say anything else, the gothic Lolita turned sharply on her heel and vanished in a swirl of oily mist.

Silence dominated as they all watched the little tendrils of black smoke left behind by Ophis' teleportation slowly disperse. It was only once the last floating speck vanished the Vali coughed awkwardly.

"Okay, because that wasn't weird at all."


	18. Chapter 18

As an orphaned kid running around Konoha, Naruto hadn't exactly had a lot of spare cash on hand. The Sandaime had always made sure his bills were paid and food was on the table, but it wasn't like he slept on fancy silk sheets and wore boxers made out of fairy farts and gold. Even as an adult who saved the world Naruto hadn't been rich.

So when he stumbled out of the black limo his new mother had sent to pick them up and found himself in front of a ridiculously swanky old-style compound that the Hyuuga would've totally loved, Naruto just stopped and stared.

Two decades in the Gremory clan and he still felt like a street rat sometimes. Old habits died hard apparently.

"You going to keep staring or are you going to shake your ass home?" Ravel sighed, placing her small hands on Naruto's lower back and giving her fiancé a hard shove. It wasn't enough to knock the redhead over, but it did give her enough space to wiggle around him and slip out of the car.

"I thought I'd keep staring for a while." Naruto snarked back, stepping out of the way entirely and ignoring the way Rias rolled her eyes as she slid out after Ravel. "You know, just really soak it in. Make sure everyone knows that this filthy gaijin drools over old school Jap-crap."

"There are so many levels of ignorance right there that I don't even know where to begin."

"You know you love it, Himejima."

Sasuke exhaled slowly, looking from Naruto to the pair of bodyguards who were standing at the door and trying very hard to seem like they weren't listening in and back again. The Uchiha didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The hint was obvious.

They all shut up.

Forcing his face into an expression that he hoped was vaguely majestic, Naruto squared his shoulders and stalked past the hired help with the air of a pampered prince. _He_ hadn't picked them, so they couldn't be trusted and he couldn't get in the habit of dropping his guard around them. That would be practically asking for his secrets to be spilled.

Even if they were only reporting to his mom.

What a great big fucking pain in his ass.

"Mom should be around here somewhere." Naruto dropped conversationally, nodding at the second set of stone-faced bodyguards that they encountered as soon as they entered the manse. _Honestly_ , how bad were things getting that his parents were _that_ paranoid? There was such a thing as overkill. At this rate he wouldn't even be able to take a shit without some idiot watching him.

"Actually, she sent me a text about fifteen minutes ago saying she had to head into town for a few hours."

Humming at his aunt's comment, Naruto peered around at the aged cherry wood decorations and traditional fixtures. "Well in that case I guess we should take a look around?" It would take some time to figure out the layout of this place, and they might as well get started before Grayfia showed up and demanded all his attention.

"Fine."

Naruto watched with a smirk as Rias and Sasuke peeled off first, the two of them wandering off down a long side corridor. He was tempted to shout a few pointed innuendos after the pair of lovebirds, but he'd rather not risk being overheard by his mother's servants. So instead he just waggled his eyebrows suggestively at his fiancé until Ravel snorted out a short laugh.

"Is that an invitation, snookums?"

Tosca gave a huff of disgust and practically took off running, Yuuto lurching after her with a baffled expression.

"I don't think she appreciates it when mommy and daddy have their cuddle time." Akeno explained blandly, hiding her amused smile behind a pale hand. "She's afraid of cooties. You know how kids can be at that age."

Gasper exhaled slowly, shuttering his pink gaze and clutching his PSP so tightly the plastic handheld console creaked. "I'm just going to go." The Bishop declared slowly, nudging Koneko with his elbow and giving Akeno a _look_. Then he turned and strode away, pulling the two girls after him with the force of his expectation alone.

Naruto was impressed. Putting a leash on the Queen and the Rook took a lot of charisma. Apparently not even a crossdressing cardboard box vampire was immune to learning from his manly greatness. It made him so proud. "They grow up so fast."

"Seems like it." Valerie agreed breezily, shuffling from one foot to the other as she looked between Naruto and Ravel. There was still a bit of her old disdain in the tight corners of her mouth when she looked at the shorter blonde, but it didn't give Naruto the feeling that they were going to start killing each other in the hallway.

Which was good. He'd rather not get any blood on what looked to be freshly polished floorboards. Though maybe a _little_ dirt wouldn't be a bad idea. Naruto loved creative solutions and sometimes disagreements had to be settled with a bit of good old-fashioned fisticuffs.

"Stop that."

"What?" Naruto startled, blinking innocently over at Ravel.

"You've got that stupid look on your face again. Stop it."

" _What_ look?"

"Naruto." Valerie cut in, soft and slow like she was speaking to a severely stunted child. "No matter how many times you ask, we're not going to mud wrestle."

* * *

Her head felt like it was floating, bobbing along the surface of some celestial stream despite the fact that she was absolutely _not_ in motion.

Grayfia collapsed bonelessly in her office chair, sinking into cold leather and hoping that an hour of quiet stillness would sober her up.

How absurdly poetic. At this point her inner monologues could be typed up and sold as a Broadway skit.

"Son of a bitch."

Cracking open a single bloodshot eye, Grayfia mustered the last dregs of parental authority she could find and glared blearily at her son. "I see you settled in." she rasped, not quite able to find the energy to call Naruto out on his filthy mouth.

At least he came by it honestly.

Fuck.

What a fucking shitshow Yasaka had subjected her to.

"You okay, mom?" Naruto stepped fully into the room, his hand twitching instinctively towards the light switch. "You want me to get you glass of water or something?"

Grayfia choked back a howl of laugher. It didn't matter how mature he tried to act, her son was just as considerate and soft-hearted as her husband. They reacted the exact same way once they found out she'd been properly liquored up. "It's fine."

The number of people Grayfia would have killed for this kind of hangover care back when she was an insurgent was astronomical. Even without the dramatic star-crossed romance it made her defection from the Old Satans completely worth it.

Cool glass pressed against her lips as Naruto shoved the edge of a tall glass of water against her mouth. A careless cool trickle flowed down the skin of her neck as Grayfia clumsily swallowed it down, one hand coming up to steady Naruto's shaky grip.

"Good." Naruto muttered as she gulped down the last mouthful, and abruptly Grayfia felt ashamed.

What kind of mother was she to expose her only son to this kind of messy drunk nonsense?

It didn't matter that Yasaka had begged for her presence for hours and hours after supper, sharing sake and making vague promises of cooperation. Naruto needed a better political role model than a chain-smoking alcoholic former rebel.

"You know, it's about time you pulled that stick outta your ass, Ma."

"Don't worry." Grayfia spat back reflexively. "I'll make sure to beat you to death with it tomorrow."

The low reverberations of Naruto's laughter shivered across her senses like dark chocolate, rich and sweet and soothingly heavy. It was a man's laugh – not a boy's – and that hit Grayfia right between the eyes like an icy pickaxe.

Naruto was no longer a child. He was old enough now for her to handle a little more harshly and a little more honestly. Maybe it was time for him to sink or swim; her coddling maternal instincts be damned.

Murdering her desire to crawl off into bed and sleep off the alcohol that Yasaka had forced down her throat, Grayfia forced steel back in her spine and sat up straight, glaring at her feckless son.

"Whoa now, chill." Naruto grinned, bringing up his hands defensively and leaning away from her sour scowl. "Nothing wrong with cutting loose for a bit. I won't even tell dad about this prime-time blackmail material. And on a _totally unrelated_ side note, what do you think about buying a new Ferrari?"

"Kill yourself."

"That's uncalled for."

Shaking her head, Grayfia deliberately brushed off Naruto's expectant amusement. "Enough." It was the middle of the night and she felt like death warmed over. If he wasn't going to get to the point and start the little interrogation she could see boiling behind his eyes, then she was going to head off to bed.

A few hours of sleep would do wonders for her patience, and maybe missing his opportunity to question her would teach Naruto the value of seizing the moment. "Stop wasting time."

The teasing little smirk fell from Naruto's lips in half a heartbeat. "Fine. I don't want to rock the boat or anything, but I obviously wasn't sent here just to play tourist. So why don't you tell me what exactly daddy dearest expects me to do around here?"

"Your father's involvement is minimal."

Naruto rolled his eyes with a scoff, sweeping the knickknacks off her desk before hopping up to take an indolent seat right on the newly varnished wood. "That's just bullshitting me and you know it. Doesn't matter if it's you or Dad or Gramps or my Grandma or the great big secret Oompa Loompa final boss of the clan that wants me rattling around Kyoto. Someone does for some reason, and I want to know why."

It took Grayfia a few seconds to realize that the emotion curdling in her gut wasn't annoyance. It was anxiety.

She'd already decided to tell her son the truth, but not even five minutes later Grayfia found herself waffling over that decision. Once she laid out all her cards that was the end. Naruto would be fully involved and he'd never be allowed to back out no matter how unforgiving and painful things became.

Rationality reigned and she made her choice.

Leaning forward, Grayfia blinked through the dry grittiness of her eyes and focused determinedly on the point between Naruto's thin red eyebrows. "The situation in Japan is troubled at the moment, and it's going to become even more troubled. At times like this the clan feels we should stand by our friends and make sure that they continue to prosper, especially if they suffer unexpected personal tragedies."

It was a vague enough statement, and even if it obviously concealed some implied message any eavesdropper could never be entirely sure what exactly Grayfia meant to say. But Naruto was smart enough to see the promise of violence in her words right away.

And once the skin along his cheekbones suddenly went grey and pallid she could tell he was clever enough to see the promise of treachery as well. "If that's how you want to play it, I guess I can't blame you. It's only fair to give what you expect to get. So how should I be helping out our friends then?"

"Did you think I endured Yasaka's idea of a party for no reason?" Grayfia smirked tartly, massaging one pounding temple with manicured fingers. "I convinced her to take you on as a student and teach you senjutsu. You get two and a half hours every Sunday afternoon for the next half a year. If you're looking to do our friends a favour I know that Yasaka's daughter is a shy little thing that needs a shoulder to lean on _. Don't screw it up_."

"Your faith in me is just humbling. _Really_. I think I might have cried a little bit there."

"Go die in a fire."

"Mom, I'm starting to see a trend here and it's making me nervous."

* * *

Sasuke woke up with a gasp, soaked in cold sweat and twisted up so tightly in his bedsheets that it felt like he was being strangled. The red glare of his plastic alarm clock burned a silent _4:07_ , and the devil knew he wouldn't be getting another wink of sleep that night.

Rolling out of bed with a sigh, Sasuke peeled off his wet nightclothes and vindictively crumpled them up before tossing them to the floor. He'd have to pick the damn things up later, but right now he was too on edge to care.

The darkness in the corner flickered like a living thing, and he sucked in a breath.

It was just a trick of the moonlight, but it was enough to remind him of the sensation of choking on shadows, of being curled up beneath the crushing weight of the cold yawning abyss, of ancient oily shadows and the long hiss of the primordial snake.

Sasuke exhaled shakily and turned away. There were things that brought mortal minds and shattered mortal souls, and they lived in his dreams. If there was a god worth praying to, he'd have considered asking for some sort of deliverance.

Or perhaps he wouldn't. Perhaps that would only make things worse. There was only one god ready to hear him, and she was the reason he was in this situation to begin with. The bargain had been struck years ago, and he was only now starting to pay for it.

Pulling on a baggy blue tracksuit in record time, Sasuke fled his room with white knuckled fists shoved into his pockets. If he couldn't tame the low ebb of panic with reason he'd tame it with pain – which was another little life lesson he'd picked up on after the Uchiha clan massacre. The easiest way to handle trauma was with training and physical exhaustion.

Luckily the Gremory clan had the sense to invest in a properly enchanted weight room.

More than one of Grayfia's little stooges took note as Sasuke practically jogged across the manse, but none of them got in his way. Maybe it was the look of barely restrained energy darkening his gaze or maybe they were just too concerned with the difference in status between the hired help and a sworn servant. Either way it worked out for him and Sasuke found his way to the exercise room in record time.

The low hum of a running treadmill greeted him as Sasuke slipped through the door.

It seemed he wasn't the only one waging a war with nightmares tonight.

Akeno sprinted over the black rubber at a pace that would make an Olympian jealous. Sweat glistened across the pale bridge of her nose and dampened her baggy red shirt to the point that it clung wetly to the skin of her back, but she showed no signs of slowing down.

Which was perfect, since Sasuke was hardly in the mood for a chat himself.

Ignoring the young woman that seemed to want to run until her heart exploded, Sasuke stepped up to the pristine never-used bench press. Faint white runes circled the black steel weights, glowing brighter as he infused them with his own energy. Once the barbell was heavy enough to break an elephant's back Sasuke stopped fiddling around and got to pumping iron.

It was easy to lose himself to the faint fire burning in his arms. The only voice in his head was his own, counting every repetition with drone-like focus _._ The only thing he heard was the faint creak the bench beneath him as the shifting weight tested its durability. The world had narrowed down until the only thing in it was Sasuke and the rod in his hands.

Sweat beaded along his hairline as he pushed his body to its limits, waiting until his muscles begged for relief and his elbows felt like jelly. Only when he felt like his arms would collapse did Sasuke stop, propping the barbell back up on the rack and taking a minute to breathe.

Eventually the pain in his arms and chest faded to manageable levels; and starting over at zero Sasuke began again.

And again.

And again.

At some point he became so soaked in sweat that the cushions beneath him sealed tight to his body despite the cotton between the leather and Sasuke's skin. Every minor readjustment of his position led to little squeaks of protest, and he grimaced at the sound.

Counting up his last set, Sasuke heaved the bar back up on the rack and sat up. Then he lifted his gaze up to Akeno. "And how long have you been standing there?"

"A while."

"Okay."

Akeno rolled her eyes, throwing a fresh towel at his face and tossing a cool bottle of water in his lap. "Like you didn't know." She complained, popping the cap off her own bottle and taking a hefty swig.

Snorting at being called out for ignoring her, Sasuke decided to give her more of the same and promptly went back to obviously snubbing the Queen. He took his time quenching his thirst, leisurely wiping the sweat off his face and from the bench.

Akeno lasted until he started checking his shoelaces before huffing a laugh and lightly punching Sasuke in the shoulder. "Asshole."

"This is domestic abuse you know."

"Well I guess you have something new to talk about at your next therapy session, little princess."

The banter lifted their spirits, and by the time Akeno decided to plop herself down cross-legged at his feet with only a hint of her former irritation remaining in her furrowed brows. "So."

"So." Sasuke echoed, resting his elbows on his knees and considering Akeno with a half-lidded stare. He'd never claim to be a professional at psychoanalyzing people, but she obviously had something she wanted to get off her chest now that she'd managed to tire herself out, and Sasuke supposed he could lend her an ear to rant to.

He didn't have Naruto's fabled Talk no Jutsu by any means, but he could do at least that much.

So Sasuke waited patiently, staring over the top of Akeno's head at the clock adorning the far wall. It was only twenty after five, so they had another couple of hours before the rest of their housemates would be waking up. More than enough time for Akeno to spill her guts so he could go find a hot shower and some eggs for breakfast.

"My cousin sent me a letter yesterday."

Ah.

Scratch the eggs, he was going to have a full plate of bacon.

Pursing his lips into a tight frown, Sasuke lowered his eyes so he could meet Akeno's violet gaze. "I see." He murmured quietly, threading his fingers together as his thoughts sharpened with cool anger. He hadn't known her when she was a little girl, but Rias and Akeno had told Sasuke enough for him to form a thoroughly negative opinion about the Himejima clan.

If they were harassing Akeno now simply because she had the gall to exist in the same city they did - well, perhaps Sasuke could have a few _words_ with them. It had been a long time since he'd done a proper shinobi black bag job, but he was confident in his skills.

Naruto might even lend him a hand for old time's sake.

"My uncle apparently died some time ago, and Suzaku is now the head of the clan." Akeno picked half-heartedly at a loose thread dangling from the hem of her shirt. "She said what happened to me was 'a gross injustice' and that she wanted to 'make amends' for it."

She didn't outright ask for his opinion on the meeting, but she didn't have to. Sasuke couldn't interpret the anxious vulnerability in her voice any other way. Even more than a decade removed from her too-short childhood and she hadn't quite killed the hungry child inside of her. She still wanted some form of acknowledgement from the people that should have given it unconditionally.

Sasuke had no idea what to say.

On the one hand, he still remembered being that orphaned boy with no parents and no clan. He'd have given anything back then simply to have _anyone_ that shared his name by his side.

But on the other hand he'd spent so much longer after that as an avenger and a murderer. His family experiences were steeped in murder and fratricide.

Was he really the sort of person Akeno should be turning to for family counseling?

"Sasuke."

A soft sigh slipped from his mouth, and Sasuke slid off the bench to sit next to her. It didn't matter if it was wise or not in the end. She'd come to him first for the exact same reasons that he doubted his own judgement. They were of a like kind, two orphans who'd been betrayed by the people that bore their names.

"Do what you have to do." Sasuke didn't say any more than that, because he already knew what her answer was going to be. Akeno could no more turn away from her clan than he could have turned away from his all those years ago.

Some things required a reckoning.

Akeno made a low noise of confirmation in the back of her throat, crossing her arms over her belly and closing her eyes with an emotion between hope and grief. Then she leaned against his side.

Sasuke didn't push her away.

* * *

"No, no, no, no, _no_!"

Serafall slammed shut the dusty tome between her hands without a single care for its thin yellowed pages or the cracks along the spine that crinkled with protest. Book number eighty-four had proven to be useless for her purposes and so she tossed it over her shoulder with a quiet curse.

"You know, your little sister would have a heart attack if she saw you abusing such priceless heirlooms." Sirzechs murmured quietly, bracing himself with a hand on her shoulder as he leaned over the back of her chair to gently return the ancient volume to the table in front of her. "So maybe instead of destroying your father's library you could let me help you find what you're looking for."

"Maybe another time you nerd king."

The redhead pulled away from Serafall, moving to stand next to her so he could peer down at the faded titles of two dozen antique treatises. His lips moved soundlessly as he considered one after the other, reading out the worn letters and comparing them to his memories.

"Oeconomicus? Really? Looking to expand your horizons _Levia-tan_?"

Brushing aside the little stutter her treacherous heart gave at having Sirzechs stand close enough that she could smell the faint lemongrass of his shampoo, Serafall rolled her eyes at her fellow Satan and started stacking the scattered books into tidy piles. "Some of us have to actually work to do our jobs you know. We're not all born as the second coming of Pericles."

Sirzechs dipped his head with practiced humility, passing Serafall a tome so ragged and aged that the cover was half-gone. "I think you might be setting your expectations for me a little too high."

Giving the man a mocking leer, Serafall decided to let the matter drop. All of Gehenna knew Sirzechs had been born to be great, and she didn't want to waste the energy it would take to get him to abandon his modesty.

There were more important things to talk about anyway. She'd invited him home after dinner for a reason, and goofy banter wasn't it.

The dark-haired devil cracked her knuckles, sending the books she inherited from her ancestors floating away with a sparkle of bright blue motes. "I'm going to make the wild assumption that you have a few hours to kill and aren't going to run out on me in the next fifteen minutes." She began conversationally, hopping to her feet and stretching with a wide yawn.

"I have three hours to spare." Sirzechs replied with a small smile, stepping aside so Serafall could lead the way. "But that would be cutting it close. Grayfia is due back from Kyoto later tonight and I promised to be there to welcome her home."

Thinning her mouth reflexively at the mention of her old rival, Serafall hummed with brief acknowledgment before falling silent. It had been decades since the last time she dueled Grayfia for the position of Satan Leviathan, and even longer since Sirzechs had chosen his positively anti-Gehennan monogamy. But the mere mention of the silver-haired woman was still enough to make her mood turn bitter.

Serafall hated herself for it. Why was she cursed with such a weak heart? No matter how many other lovers she took to bed or how much time passed she still yearned like a pathetic little schoolgirl. She'd lost her daughter long ago and the man she'd wanted for a husband would never return her affections. Why couldn't she just move on?

If Sirzechs were a crueler man she'd accuse him of deliberately throwing just enough scraps to keep her interested. But despite his intelligence he wasn't capable of that kind of long-term faithless manipulation, which meant the problem was her. She was the one that couldn't let go, and it was strangling her.

The clicking of their boot-clad heels echoed through the lifeless marble corridors like the heavy notes of a funeral dirge, and Serafall felt her face twist into a brief savage sneer. Between the lack of servants and the darkness that came from unlit scones, her home was just as empty and bleak as her mood.

How splendidly fucking symmetrical. If she couldn't feel Sirzechs' curious eyes practically burning a hole between her shoulder blades Serafall would have howled with black humor. As it was she'd have to settle for pickling her liver after she finished her little shop talk with the Crimson Satan. There was a bottle of Commandaria in her stores with her name on it.

In the end Sirzechs didn't say anything to break the stillness, and Serafall led him to a sparsely furnished drawing room on the third floor of her manse.

Between the frayed tapestries and tarnished silver patterns inlaid into the yellowed marble it was by far the most run-down place in her manse. She'd have never dared to host a foreign dignitary there, and even her own family was rarely invited to relax on the weathered furniture scattered about the room. Only the Satans were welcome in this little sanctuary, because only they could truly appreciate the décor.

The third-floor east drawing room was where Serafall had stored the odds and ends left behind by the fallen Leviathan clan. Where others saw dingy fixtures and flecked paint, she saw trophies taken from the broken remains of those she'd dispossessed. This room was proof of her victory over those that had supposedly been born to rule her.

Serafall smirked faintly. If she couldn't have love then at least she could have power.

"Cognac?" The purple-eyed Satan offered genially, letting her colleague take his seat as she wandered over to the pale oak cellerette that clashed with everything else in the room. "Or perhaps you'd prefer properly aged Starka?"

Sirzechs chuckled lowly, propping his booted foot up on his knee and sinking back into the slightly wobbly green chesterfield he'd chosen. "Cognac is fine. Courvoisier if you have it." He watched his hostess pouring the amber liquor with half-lidded eyes.

"I always have it, you goofball." Serafall gave a long-suffering sigh, pouring herself a glass as well. Brandy wasn't usually her first choice, but she liked it well-enough; and Napoleon's Cognac had been Sirzech's preference for years.

She knew him too well to buy anything else.

Hiding a heartsick grimace behind the rim of her snifter, Serafall took a quiet sip and wrenched her mind away from her useless self-pity. She could whine about all her lost chances later, when there was no one to judge her – or worse _pity_ her – for it.

"So."

"So, your son is getting too ambitious." Serafall drawled mockingly, watching with a viper's gaze as Sirzechs pouted at the reminder of his precious baby boy's political bumbling. "I'll admit he's not totally clueless. He managed to woo Sona into his little scheme and the way he dethroned Sairaorg was effective even if it wasn't totally graceful. But don't you think you should take him in hand already? He's being a little too obvious."

Sirzechs narrowed his teal eyes in thought, mulling over her words and staring down into the bowl of his crystal glass like it held the secrets of the universe. "To be fair." He eventually returned, cocking a slim red eyebrow at Serafall. "He's only clumsy in hindsight. The Kyoto mess has nothing to do with him, and if you take that away he hasn't said or done anything unusual. Hunting for contracts and rubbing elbows with other youngsters in his generation is something we all do at his age. It would honestly be stranger if he had the talents he does but _didn't_ try to play the game."

"Fair enough." Serafall sighed, thinking back on her own youth and admitting that even she'd been an idiot novice once upon a time. "I suppose I'm just oversensitive considering if he goes down then Sona will get caught in the blowback… not to mention that True Longinus bratling he'll have gunning for him."

Sirzechs chuckled, remembering the panic that had rocked through his clan when the first reports of their heir tangling with Cao Cao trickled in. "It's good for them. They need something to put their backs to the wall so they can grow. But if things do get to be too much for them, I'll step in. You've got my word on that. So tame your little sister complex and focus a bit more on the Senate, hmm?"

"You cheeky fucker."

"And if it bothers you that much then maybe you should go play nursemaid for a while."

Serafall gave the other Satan a considering look, and very deliberately smiled. "That sounds like an interesting idea."

"You're joking, right?"

A pause.

"You better be joking!"


	19. Chapter 19

A stream of violet petals broke free from a hundred irises, torn free by a sudden heavy breeze that crossed in from the far edge of the walled-in courtyard. They were lifted up and in, dancing between the cherry red pillars of the veranda like frolicking pixies.

Yasaka absently reached out to pinch a single petal between two tapered pale fingers. "How lovely." Inari's chosen priestess murmured, crushing it into thin purple filaments with a lazy twitch of her hand. "But fragile."

There was a certain beauty in that impermanence the blonde kitsune decided. Living things could not endure, and that was why they were more precious than inanimate matter. No amount of gold or jewels or masterwork weapons could substitute for flesh-and-blood beings with hearts of their own.

It was a basic precept of senjutsu. The natural energy of the world flowed freely, but still in symbiosis with the living organisms of the planet. Chakra wasn't born from air and stone.

A simple concept in theory, but most novice students of senjutsu struggled to accept it – to accept that natural energy was not and would never be some impersonal force to master. A senjutsu master never commanded the world. They only requested. They yielded and accepted that their proud individuality meant nothing in the grand scheme of the universe.

Learning to be humble was a hard lesson for most to complete. But Naruto Gremory was different, and it roused her wary curiosity.

When the redhead had showed up at her gates earlier she'd had very low expectations for him. He was a noble and a child and a devil. The boy should have been spoiled to suit his pedigree, impatient as all young people are when he didn't instantly succeed and frustrated by being told to think in a distinctively un-Gehennan way.

In truth, Yasaka had assumed his potential to master the sage arts was minimal and after a few months of putting up with him the Gremory heir would stop coming around.

And she'd been fine with that idea. Yasaka didn't bear any particular grudge against Naruto, but they both knew the score. Grayfia had only requested that she tutor him as an excuse to get the boy in close company with her daughter, and Yasaka had only agreed to play nice with her allies. Once she finished offering six months of senjutsu lessons she'd toss the boy out on the streets.

The Gremory clan could not _be_ any more blatant with their attempts to force a strategic marriage through their children.

But it seemed that Lady Luck had decided to rain on Yasaka's parade this time, because as loath as she was to admit it Naruto Gremory seemed to have real talent, and that meant she had to teach him seriously.

A half-trained senjutsu master wasn't just ignorant. they were a danger to the public, and Yasaka couldn't afford to have the boy go on a murder spree through the streets of Kyoto. Not with tensions running so high with Edo and the other youkai factions looking for blood in the water.

"Kunou." Yasaka called out, soft enough not to startle but hard enough to let her daughter know that she'd seen the younger kitsune fidgeting.

A pout crossed Kunou's face, and with a little groan of displeasure she rolled her shoulders before forcing herself to sit quietly. Years of instruction had given Kyoto's heir a thorough grounding in the philosophy underlying senjutsu and the ability to handle natural energy with practiced skill, but she was still a child. Even adults struggled to remain totally still during meditation.

Which made the Gremory boy even more odd and even more suspicious in Yasaka's mind. When he'd walked into the yard he'd plopped himself down on the grass in the lotus position and gone as still as a boulder.

For two hours the boy sat there without moving a single muscle. Even when a bumblebee landed on his face and wandered across his nose he never so much as twitched.

It was utterly bizarre. Yasaka could sense that he'd never properly drawn in natural energy like a practitioner of the sage arts would, and even now Naruto hadn't absorbed so much of a trickle of chakra from the world around him. He was a novice with the composure of a master, and it set her teeth on edge.

He was too careful and too patient for a child of his age.

Perhaps the Gremory heir was just as much of a prodigy as his clan liked to brag, but even prodigies had a few stumbles in the beginning. It was like he'd learned senjutsu before – but that was impossible given that he was so unpracticed he hadn't even managed to touch the chakra within his own body.

What an odd child.

Yasaka knew there were pieces to this little conundrum she was missing, and she hated unsolved puzzles. She supposed she'd have to keep a spare eye on him and re-evaluate just how dangerous the Gremory clan really was in the long run.

There were enemies without and within it seemed.

* * *

Steel coathangers screeched as Rias flipped through the dozens of outfits hanging in Akeno's closet. They were all classy and expensive and flattered her best friend, but it was hard to find one that felt quite right. "You've already checked online and you're sure that she just wants to meet you in some hole in the wall café, correct?"

Akeno lay sprawled crosswise on her queen-sized bed, her head and feet hanging loosely over the edges of the mattress. It left her long midnight mane to dangle down to the floorboards, forming a tangled pile that practically begged for split ends.

"Yep." She shot back, popping the 'p' with a sort of sharp listlessness. The young woman was only pretending at plucky insolence while she stared up at the ceiling with glazed over amethyst irises. It was a far cry from Akeno's usual irreverent energy, and just looking at her made Rias want to grit her teeth.

The noblewoman was too well-bred for that kind of uncouth behavior, but the sentiment was still there. Rias had watched Akeno waffle between nihilistic apathy and tightly-wound anxiety for weeks as letters between the Head of the Himejima Clan and its errant scion flew back and forth.

Rias had disliked it at the beginning, and she disliked it now, and the only reason she hadn't leaned on her authority as Akeno's mistress to put a stop to the whole thing was her rational understanding that Akeno needed closure. Draining poison from a wound was always painful, and it wasn't any different just because someone she cared for was involved. A face-to-face confrontation with her cousin was the only way for the halfblood to move forward.

But just because she understood the rational necessity didn't mean Rias had to like it.

"I see." Rias exhaled lowly, eying the three blouses she'd pulled out of the closet for Akeno to take a peek at. There wasn't anything particularly spectacular about the shirts Rias picked out, and if Akeno settled on any one of them it would be redone half a dozen times. "It wouldn't be my first choice, but I suppose there are some benefits."

"I guess."

If Rias was the one planning the little rendezvous between cousins, she'd have suggested they meet in a high-class eatery rather than a lower-middle class bistro. It was actually less conspicuous for a woman with Himejima Suzaku's social standing to take an evening off some five-star restaurant than it was for her to randomly stop by some little bodega to rub elbows with the plebs.

Deviations from social expectations always raised questions.

Still, Suzaku's choice wasn't entirely without merit. It was less likely that anyone working at a low-end Butlers' Café would have a side job reporting to any of the big political players in Kyoto. On top of that Rias and her peerage were still unknowns, so while Rias herself would need to be at the table with Akeno and Suzaku there was nothing stopping the rest of her servants from hiding in the crowd.

Rias doubted that Suzaku intended to lay a trap for them. Even if she wanted to the Himejima clan couldn't really afford to make enemies out of one of the 72 Pillars. If given a bloody shirt to wave and justify a conflict the Gremory clan would obliterate the Himejima.

But it never hurt to be prepared just in case. Akeno's heart might be on the line but that didn't mean Rias had to let her be reckless about it.

"Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

The question fell from Akeno's lips in a hushed breath, soft and vulnerable in a way that brought a burning tightness to Rias' chest.

Turning away from the closet, Rias' settled her teal eyes on Akeno's pensive face. The redhead took in the way the other woman pursed her mouth into a tight frown, the clenched fists she had settled against her lithe stomach, and the jumping tense vein in the hollow of her throat.

The past lay heavy on her, and Rias found herself wondering if Akeno would always be a prisoner to it. Maybe they were all doomed to be caged by the past. Yuuto, Sasuke, Koneko – they were all wearing chains of memories and might never be truly free of them.

That didn't mean that they shouldn't try.

"You're taking a terrible gamble, but you're not wrong."

* * *

Naruto ambled through the halls on sock feet, slowly sliding around on the well-polished ancient hardwood as he chewed his lower lip in thought. Yasaka's monologues yesterday had been enlightening in an ironic way, because despite the distance between dimensions he found himself reminded eerily of of Gamamaru.

The busty foxgirl didn't have much in common with the wrinkled Toad Sage on the surface, but once he got them talking about senjutsu their philosophies were almost exactly the same. 'Chakra' in this world was basically the same thing as natural energy in the old world, and Naruto had a hunch that using it would pretty simple too.

The benefits of living twice just kept on coming.

Checking his cell as it buzzed in his pocket, Naruto rolled his eyes at the too-late confirmation text and knocked on Koneko's door before letting himself in. "Aren't you just the most punctual little kitten in the world?"

"If that's how you feel then maybe next time I won't even bother to respond." The white-haired nekomata shot back dryly, sitting cross-legged on top of her brand-new desk with her thumbs mashing away frantically at the buttons of her Game Boy. "I'm pretty sure I died at least three times doing it, so you owe me."

Naruto did a double-take at the sight of Sasuke lounging on the floor, wondering why exactly the man was cruising for a sore ass. "You know, we have these things called chairs. They're for sitting on. Maybe you've heard of them? That goes for you too Miss short, pale, and ugly."

"Blow it out your ass." Sasuke replied absently, shutting down the PSP he'd borrowed from Koneko and carelessly tossing the device up on her bed. That earned him a sour look from the girl that he brushed off, climbing to his feet and cracking his knuckles. "So what do you want this time?"

"Um?" Blinking with a thrill of confusion, Naruto flicked his gaze from Sasuke to Koneko and back again. "I was looking for Koneko-chan?" The redhead wasn't sure why Sasuke just automatically assumed that he was looking for him. He hadn't even mentioned the Uchiha when he sent that text asking the girl where she was.

Koneko and Sasuke glanced at each other with twin expressions of complete befuddlement before she cocked an eyebrow at the redhead who'd disturbed their gaming time. "Are you sure?" she prodded, tapping one finger against the edge of her dark grey handheld.

"Uh, yeah?"

Silence hung in the air between the three of them for half a minute before Sasuke broke it, muttering to himself sarcastically. "We were under the impression you forget she exists sometimes."

"I'm pretty sure we've never even spoken to each other one-on-one, just sayin'."

"Oh, fuck you." Naruto laughed, shaking his head at the pair. "Assholes. How could I when our little wannabe Carmen Sandiego here keeps trying to follow me without noticing?" She'd stopped that habit once he fully reconciled with Rias, but Naruto wasn't going to sweat the details. "By the way, normal people call that stalking, y'know? And rate It pretty high on the creep factor?"

Koneko offered Naruto a stout middle finger, sneering at him and returning to her game. "Neck yourself. Don't bother me unless you have something actually worth talking about."

A fond smirk twisted the redhead's mouth, and he briefly considered baiting her again just to make his day. Unfortunately, Naruto had decided to hunt down Koneko for a reason, and having a grand old time wasn't it. "As funny as playing with you is, I'm going to have to pass. Don't you have some runes to hunt down or something?" Naruto demurred, shooting Sasuke a significant look.

The Uchiha frowned back at him, quietly pondering Naruto's silent request before heaving his shoulders with a quiet sigh. "I forgot that Rias wanted me to come and help her experiment with Nagari script. I'll finish grinding to the level cap tomorrow."

Koneko narrowed her eyes at the excuse, but she refused to shift her glare away from the screen as Sasuke slowly shuffled out of the room and left her alone with the Gremory heir.

"So." Naruto declared, twisting his neck from one side to the other with an echoing crack. "So." The devil repeated, flouncing over to Koneko's bed and sitting on the edge, perching his elbows on his knees and peering at her with a glittering teal stare. "So, so, so, so, so!"

Huffing at the young man's insistent needling, Koneko left her barely begun battle on pause and scowled at him. "This better be important, because right now I'm in the middle of working my way through Battle Tower and I am _not_ going to load from the last save point."

The redhead briefly considered pointing out just how useless it was in the long run to _even care_ about getting a one hundred percent completion rate on some crappy Pokemon game, but he figured it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. Naruto hadn't come to pick a fight even if he'd have fun with one. "Look I just wanted to borrow you for like five or ten minutes. It's not the end of the world or anything. And after that I guess you can do you. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Koneko squinted at the Gremory heir with a frigid amber glower, but she didn't try to shoo him away. "Fine then. Lay it on me."

"Okay so, uh." Naruto began slowly, picking and choosing his words cautiously. It was important that he didn't say anything out of the ordinary in case his mother had servants eavesdropping on them, but he still needed to be sure that the nekomata understood his roundabout references. "You know how I'm getting some senjutsu lessons from Yasaka? Well it's like – it feels like a lot of this stuff is uh, _common sense_ ; and I've heard it before."

The long dark slits of the Rook's pupils dilated with instinctive paranoia, but Koneko never shifted her gaze away from Naruto's face. "Go on." She urged him vaguely, silently setting her handheld console on the desk beside her and bracing her elbows on her knees. They were both talking around the first life he'd lived, and they both knew the importance of keeping it a secret.

Some of the tension in Naruto's shoulders bled away when Koneko didn't quietly point out any peeping toms. The redhead had been pretty sure that they were alone himself, but it never hurt to have a second opinion and he wasn't too proud to accept help. Maybe he'd trained for years in another world as a shinobi, but that didn't make Koneko's natural talent useless. She had to have _some_ insight that would make things easier for him.

"Righto." Naruto bounced up and down on Koneko's navy blue comforter. "Would you kill me if I put my feet on the bed?" he smirked before wiggling his toes and settling his legs beneath him. "Don't worry. I won't fart on your pillows." He winked when the young woman gave him a death glare. "So turn that frown upside down and tell me all about chakra."

A very long-suffering sigh slipped from Koneko's lips. "I will end you one day." She promised in a deadpan tone, carefully massaging her temples with clawed fingers. With her patience for fooling around running dry, she conceded and changed tack. "It would probably be quicker to tell me what exactly the issue is rather than looking for a general rundown."

Shrugging nonchalantly, Naruto let smarmy amusement melt off his face to reveal the honest curiosity beneath. "I suppose that's fair." He mulled over the clipped words Yasaka had been willing to spare for him during their first lesson. "Anyway, I guess you could say I'm having an issue with putting theory into practice. She didn't tell me anything I haven't heard around before, so it feels like I should just be able to just take it and run. But I didn't feel anything, you know what I mean? I did everything she told me and mixed in a few of the _rumors_ I heard, but nothin."

The redhead picked idly at a loose thread hanging off the toe of his socks. "So it made me wonder if there was like, a ritual or something? Do I just need to wait around until something happens?" There had to be a secret that he was missing.

Naruto wasn't afraid to toot his own horn when he had a reason to. Back in Konoha he'd been one of the very few people to ever master senjutsu. So he knew that strictly speaking the philosophy wasn't actually _necessary_ to use natural energy. The Cursed Seals and the sacred fountain on Mount Myoboku proved that senjutsu was really just a regular technique wrapped up In pretentious hot air.

And he doubted it was any different in this world.

Yasaka could blab with the best of them and quote a bunch of old guys if she wanted, but at the heart of it her senjutsu was just another form of magic. The philosophy was a way to help practicing sages hold onto the right mindset. Someone that had honest control over their own mind and body didn't need that kind of memorized by rote crutch. They wouldn't lose themselves just because they drew in chakra from the atmosphere.

 _Naruto_ wouldn't lose himself to chakra, just like he hadn't lost himself to natural energy. Senjutsu was a weapon, not a lifestyle or a religion, and he wasn't going to pretend otherwise.

"Ah." Koneko hummed thoughtfully, lowering her gaze to the floor and rubbing her chin as she considered what the Gremory heir had said and what he implied. Only Valerie and Koneko had a real appreciation for the power Naruto and Sasuke once had as humans. Where a stranger would only see childish arrogance, Koneko was able to recognize the worth of Naruto's experience.

She gave his words the weight they deserved.

Silence hung in the air as Naruto waited patiently for her response, and eventually he was reward.

A faint grimace crossed her face as Koneko looked back up at him. "I don't think you're wrong." She offered, waving her hand in a so-so motion. "I can use senjutsu myself and I never had to spent a year meditating in some garden. I can just do it. "

"A genetic power." Naruto realized, thinking on his own bloodline ability. He didn't have to take a course in magic theory to call up the Power of Destruction. He just did it, just like he opened his eyes or took a breath. "Some people are just born naturally able to take in and use chakra without having to do anything special. You gotta practice of course, but the ability is still just there."

"Exactly."

Launching himself to his feet, Naruto ran a hand through his hair and began to pace the length of the room with Koneko's eyes following him all the while. "But people can still _learn_ it. So where's the silver bullet? Logically you don't earn it by respecting nature or whatever, since nature apparently doesn't care what you respect if you're just born with it. So what? Chakra injections? Drugs? It's like a seventh sense, right?"

Koneko blinked at the sudden question. "Like a third eye, I guess." She decided after a second's thought. "It's a bit like 'regular' magic. Once you're aware of it then it's not that hard to touch it and shape it. You just… open your eye."

Gagging silently at the faint image of Kaguya that crossed his mind, Naruto shook away the old memory and focused back on the present. "Fine then. So how do I do that? There's gotta be some procedure that you just do - or that someone does to you I guess? Maybe that's why everyone says it's dangerous? If you're not ready when you get the poke you just burn up or something. But then why didn't you explode when you were a baby?"

"A learned seventh sense versus a natural one." Koneko shot back with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "Maybe a dunce like you would get _blown up_ but I was born ready."

Naruto brushed off the insult, chewing the inside of his cheek as his thoughts rushed to their natural conclusion. It wasn't just vaguely like senjutsu in his first life, it was _exactly_ like it, down to using something like magic toad oil to 'open his mind' or whatever. Maybe chakra wouldn't feel the same as natural energy but the mechanics had to be pretty similar. Which meant that there was only one thing to do.

"Hey, poke me."

"What."

"Just do your chakra thing. Put it in your finger and stick it in me. You should be able to spray it all inside me, yeah?"

Koneko stared at him. "…No."

"Aww, come on." Naruto whined, hovering over the nekomata with a pout. "I just need to get a feel for chakra. You can already do senjutsu so it should be pretty easy for you, yeah? You don't have to fill me up with it or whatever. Just stick a little bit at a time in me and maybe that'll wake me up. It shouldn't hurt at all if we do it that way."

"… _No_."

* * *

"Here you are Ma'am." The cashier slid a flimsy cardboard tray across the counter before dusting his hands off on his faded green apron. "Two medium pumpkin spice latte."

Ravel readjusted her crisp navy beret, smiling cheekily at the boy until a faint flush tinged his tanned cheeks a dusky pink. "Thanks." She chirped, sweeping up her order and flouncing across the dimly lit café.

"Wipe that frown off your face." The blonde chided as she slid into a booth across from Sasuke, taking a tiny sip of her piping hot coffee. When the Uchiha didn't respond Ravel rolled her eyes and meaningfully pushed the other latte across the table towards him. "You're supposed to be having fun, not pouting like the lead singer of an emo boy band."

Scowling fiercely at Ravel, Sasuke very deliberately refused to rise to the bait. Instead he returned to vaguely scanning the nearly empty cafe and staring out the slightly fogged front windows.

The day had dawned with heavy rains, so there were less customers than they'd planned for and it was putting both young devils on edge. They were both paranoid enough to want to control all the variables, and when something changed abruptly they didn't care for it.

And with nothing left to do but wait until Suzaku and Akeno made their separate appearances, they'd turned to sniping at each other.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at a poorly disguised tanuki, considering the youkai while he blindly groped for his coffee and lifted the warm drink to his lips.

Two seconds later he nearly slammed the cup down and made a disgusted face at the sweetness of it. "You just had to do it." He growled at Ravel, twitching in irritation when she just smirked and tossed her golden ringlets over her shoulders.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She sniffed, dapping daintily at her lips with a napkin. Ravel wondered if she should kick his shins just for good measure when the high chime of a bell split the air. "Look alive."

Sasuke understood her airy warning well enough, and he turned back to face her straight on. "Anyone worth mentioning?" he murmured lowly, meeting her eyes directly with his own coal dark gaze. This time when he lifted the sweetened latte to his lips he didn't even twitch.

The control was kind of impressive if Ravel had to speak honestly.

"It's just the friendly neighborhood blond ponce." Ravel reassured him, tracing idle shapes into the worn warm brown wood of the table. "Nothing we haven't seen before." With his back to the door Sasuke was relying on her to keep a lookout, and she wasn't such a bitch that she'd lie just to wind him up. It was one thing to pour a bunch of sugar in his drink and another to bait him when they were expecting possible enemies.

Sasuke gave a low grunt of acknowledgement but didn't look satisfied. True, the fact that Yuuto had successfully dropped in without fanfare meant everything was going to plan. But it also meant that they had even more waiting to look forward to.

Such joy.

Another handful of minutes trickled by in slightly-awkward silence. Honestly, Ravel wasn't sure how she'd been roped into pretending to be Sasuke's date for the afternoon. It was true that Naruto and Rias were too distinctive to pass for random strangers, but Naruto could have told Valerie to play the part.

On second thought, maybe it was better that her fiancé didn't volunteer his personal psychopathic slut for the job. Sasuke and Ravel didn't really interact much socially but at least _she_ wasn't going to just snap all of a sudden and try to strangle him.

Still, Koneko probably would have done it without complaining. In fact, if she wanted to place bets Ravel would say that the girl would have been happy to do it. The cat girl was just as much of a cold fish as Sasuke himself. Two frozen peas in a pod – it would have been delightful. They were practically made to go together.

And wasn't that just a _fun_ thought? Ravel decided, choking back the urge to laugh. It was barely a secret that Sasuke and Rias were fucking, and Akeno had been panting after both of them for years. Maybe Ravel could spice things up by pulling strings to try and get Koneko into the mix somewhere. It would be like having a front row seat to her own personal soap opera.

Ah, the possibilities. If only she could sell tickets.

"How are things?" Sasuke's sudden vague question cut through the meandering storm of her thoughts like a knife.

Blinking at the interruption, Ravel cocked a slim gold eyebrow. "What's that now?"

The Pawn thinned his mouth at her confusion. "I said, how are things?" Sasuke muttered, clenching his jaw when she only stared back at him with pure befuddlement. "With you and Naruto?"

The clarification didn't make anything better. In fact, it made it even worse. "Is this small talk?" she questioned incredulously, pinching the skin on the back of her hand just in case it was a dream. "Is this actually you, _Uchiha Sasuke_ , trying to make small talk with me?"

"Well not if you're going to have a stroke over it." Sasuke shot back frostily, taking another sip of his teeth-rotting supposedly-coffee sludge.

Fanning herself with one carefully manicured hand, Ravel leaned back against the cool leather of her seat and began to gasp dramatically. "Help, help! I'm dying! I'm dying over here!"

"Breathe deep you absolute troglodyte."

"You really know how to make a girl feel special." Ravel flicked her stare briefly to the side when the bell jingled again, remaining in place just long enough to recognize a set of bobbing white twintalls. "There's Tosca, by the way. Don't wet yourself with glee now."

"You're annoying." Sasuke bit out, looking for all the world like he wanted to find the nearest rusty butterknife and saw his own arms off. But Ravel saw the little reluctantly amused twist to his mouth, and she grinned in return. "Stop talking about useless things and just keep your eyes peeled."

Ravel put one hand over her heart and fluttered her lashes at the exasperated demand. "Sure thing." She crooned sarcastically, leering at Sasuke with a mocking twinkle in her eyes. "Anything for you, _Daddy_."

The expression that crossed Sasuke's face could only be more disgusted if she'd followed up her acerbic flirtation by puking in his lap. "Whatever pet names you have for your idiot boyfriend – don't use them on me."

"Who said anything about Naruto?" Ravel sighed, setting her elbow on the table and cradling her chin in her palm. "I'm taking my cues from Akeno. If you don't like the name I'm sure you two can figure something else out. How about Papa? Sir? Or maybe you want to go all out, _Master_?"

Pressing the heel of his palm into his forehead, Sasuke shook his head and gave a low grown of disbelief. "You know, I didn't see it before but you and Naruto are just _perfect_ together. You're both spastic perverts."

"I resent that. I am most certainly not spastic."

"Tch, this is my life now."

Ravel was ready to claim her victory when she was derailed by someone clearing their throat right next to their booth. "Yes?" the blond sighed, turning away from her victim so she could focus on the killjoy that had interrupted her fun.

A warm violet stare set in a very familiar face looked back at her. Pale skin, long dark hair, a perfectly sculpted nose and a rosy little mouth that practically begged to be kissed. If not for the dark shadows that spoke of sleepless months beneath those amethyst irises she'd have sworn on her own life that Akeno had decided to show up early.

But she hadn't.

Himejima Suzaku smiled beatifically. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Fuck me." Ravel replied eloquently.


	20. Chapter 20

A slightly rusted silver bell jingled cheerily in greeting as Akeno slipped inside the slightly dingy butler café. She felt Rias and Naruto squeeze in behind her, pushing up against her back to try to silently encourage her to move out of the way so they could get away from the rain, and after a moment of hesitation she stepped to the side.

"Finally." Naruto complained under his breath, shaking his windswept crimson strands like a dog and sending cold droplets flying all over the place. A few icy beads slapped against Akeno's chilled cheek, and she snapped out of her stupor with a grimace.

"Please don't." She hissed back, unzipping her carmine overcoat and passing it to her quietly fretting mistress. In a strange way Rias' protective anxiety seemed to drain her own nervousness away – almost like as long as Akeno had her to worry on her behalf then she didn't have to think too deeply about negative outcomes.

If she had a therapist Akeno rather suspected that kind of statement would raise a few flags. There were so many ways to spell out dependency these days it was almost sad.

Brushing away idle thoughts and angsty musings, Akeno squared her shoulders and scanned over the half-full bistro.

Apparently, the owner had underestimated just how loyal their customers were, since they'd decided to send most of their staff home due to the rainstorm and now didn't have enough workers left to properly service everybody.

"Here we go." Akeno muttered, tracing a dozen unfamiliar lone faces in search of her cousin before giving up. Maybe Suzaku was running late? The thought was a bit disappointing, but she supposed she could give the woman the benefit of the doubt. Akeno herself was technically a few minutes late on account of the weather.

Slim fingers curled around Akeno's bicep as Rias gently took hold of the shorter woman, leaning in so her lips brushed over the still-cool curve of Akeno's ear. It made the Queen shiver for multiple reasons, most of which weren't appropriate to be thinking of during a long-overdue domestic confrontation. "Tosca and Yuuto have a table for two right next to the front window. Koneko is in the booth closest to the counter."

Which only left Ravel and Sasuke, Akeno finished silently, narrowing her eyes and scanning over the dimly shaded booths in the back by the fire exit. Sasuke would want to guard the second exit and keep his back to the wall, so the options were pretty limited.

A single lightbulb in the far corner fixture flickered on for a second, banishing the shadows for an instant before giving out again. It wasn't long enough for human eyes to craft a coherent image out of the contrasting illumination, but Akeno's greater than mortal vision saw perfectly well now that her gaze had been drawn, and she sucked in a tiny breath.

Suzaku lazily raised a hand in welcome, a cryptic little smile curving up the corners of her mouth. If she'd been anyone else Akeno could have just stiffened her spine and powered on through the nostalgia, but Suzaku was more than just a childhood friend. Suzaku was Akeno's cousin, and she had Shuri's face.

It had taken Akeno a long time to get passed seeing her mother in the mirror. Over time she'd come to focus on the minor differences and see past the similarities. But with her mother a decade and a half gone the details had grown fuzzier, and Akeno couldn't draw the line between the overlapping mental pictures of her living cousin and her dead mother.

"She's in the back by the fire exit." Her voice was just a little bit faint, thinned out by the shock and long buried sorrow. The feeble tone of her words wasn't enough to draw Naruto's attention, but Akeno could practically feel the scorch of Rias' teal stare.

Naruto saved her from awkward questions though. The redhaired man hissed through his teeth, hunching his shoulders and leaning towards his two companions. "The plan's gone tits up then. She's just chillin' back there with them, and they look like they've got sticks up their asses. Do you think she said something to them?"

'Them' being Ravel and Sasuke, who seemed determined to mimic emotionless statues carved out of ice.

Perhaps Akeno should have expected things to go this way. She knew if she were the one in Suzaku's place, and if she found out about Rias' little safety net; that she'd make a point to crash it. Either as a threat, or simply to make the point that she wouldn't be kept at a distance.

Which meant that there was nothing to do except roll with the punches and try to take back some control.

Clenching her jaw, Akeno took her overcoat back from Rias and folded it over her arm. If she couldn't have strength then she'd at least try to have the image of it. "I'm going to talk to her. You two stay back." Then bowling over the protests of her best friend she stepped forward.

In the end, despite her better judgement; Rias didn't follow.

Akeno was hyper-aware of the sound of her boot heels clicking over the worn dusty tile floor. The steady tap seemed to spur the slowly building thrum of her blood in veins, and by the time she stood next to Ravel and stared down at Suzaku, she could feel her pulse pounding in the hollow of her throat.

"Go." She told Ravel and Sasuke, refusing to turn her gaze away from her cousin for even an instant. It was pretty rude of her if the displeased little huff Ravel made was any indication, but Akeno couldn't force herself to care. She'd apologize later, at some time when she couldn't feel the walls falling in beneath the combined weight of apprehension and reminiscence.

Suzaku cocked an eyebrow Akeno's demand for privacy, but she didn't make a fuss about it. She kept quiet while Ravel shuffled off to another table, only giving an amused little grin when the blonde devil fired off a last poisonous glare.

Warmth seeped into her skin as Sasuke paused on the way by, clasping Akeno's forearm in a deceptively gentle grip. He didn't say anything, but at that moment he didn't have to. Akeno knew without even looking at him what the man was silently offering.

A promise of gore and massacre. All she had to do was ask, and he'd move to cut Suzaku's head off in less than a second. He'd probably kill everyone in the room without hesitation if she asked.

Akeno didn't think that those kinds of thoughts should make her belly tingle the way they did. Another thing to bring up with her nonexistent therapist.

Wordlessly she shook her head, and with a final squeeze Sasuke drifted away like the morning mist fading under sunlight.

Sliding down into the booth across from her cousin, Akeno merely watched as Suzaku considered the crowd with a calculating expression.

"You're a bit paranoid, aren't you?" Suzaku chuffed a quiet laugh, sweeping her long, unbound, ink-dark hair over her shoulder. The half-a-dozen amethysts in her little golden lily-shaped hairclip glittered at the motion, and for a brief second Akeno's focus faltered.

That tiny sign of weakness was enough, and Suzaku smiled with an open air of melancholy. "You're still a greedy little magpie I see. It's good to see that you're the same as ever, Akeno."

The lack of proper honorifics was deliberate, and Akeno wasn't sure how she should respond to it.

On the one hand, it could just be a bit of deliberate arrogance on the part of her childhood-friend-turned-clan-head. No amount of dressing down could hide the fact that Suzaku was a woman of power. It showed in her effortless authority and Suzaku had made the point to seek out Akeno's pre-planted backup with whimsical ease. If she was trying to unnerve Akeno, it was working.

But on the other hand, maybe Suzaku really was here in good faith. Maybe she really did reach out for the sole purpose of reforging ties with a woman that had once been close enough to be her sister. In that scenario Suzaku was just being deliberately familiar, destroying as much formal distance as possible in an effort to reconnect.

Cold logic learned from years of political games and suspicion urged Akeno to assume the former. A little seed of delicate optimism well-watered by the sad wistfulness in Suzaku's eyes begged her to believe the latter. The conflict grew so tight in Akeno's chest she could barely force herself to keep breathing, and she deliriously wondered if it really was possible to die from a breaking heart. "Suzaku."

"I bought you a cup." Suzaku pointed out airily, her fingers tapping along the gleaming tabletop in vague rhythm. Some mostly-forgotten song filled the air between them as Suzuku hammered the nails of one hand against hardwood, providing half a background theme while her other hand mixed cream and sugar into a steaming cardboard cup. "but I can't promise that it's any good."

Akeno swallowed back the urge to laugh and accepted the drink without complaining. It was one thing to assume that Suzaku was fundamentally treacherous, but it was another to live her life like she was part of a poorly written political drama.

Her cousin wasn't going to poison her drink right in front of her, so with a sour smirk Akeno lifted the paper rim to her lips and drank deep.

The taste of jasmine and lemon and honey blazed over Akeno's taste buds, drowning her in a flavor out of the dusty halls of recollection. For half a heartbeat she was five years old again, sitting at her mother's knee at the Himejima shrine. The Akeno of yesteryear's memories listened with one lazy ear as her mother regaled her with ancient tales and mostly forgotten lore, not appreciating at all what Shuri was trying to teach her.

Akeno would never be able to go back to those carefree innocent days where the only thing she cared about was remembering enough about Shinto rituals to keep her mother from grounding her. She'd lost everything except her heartache and a cousin she wasn't sure she could trust.

"It's fine." Akeno rasped, setting her cup back down and clutching her hands tight around it to hide her shaking fingers. "But you need to stop adding the sugar." It was an old argument that she hadn't thought about in years. Green teas were supposed to stand alone without much in the way of additives, but no matter how much she'd complained as a girl her cousin just kept on putting sugar in anyway.

Suzaku had always been stubborn about the silliest little things. It had driven Akeno half-crazy with frustration, but it always made Shuri laugh.

"You're twenty years too late with that argument." Suzaku chuckled, pointedly taking a sip of her own steaming drink. Then she looked Akeno in the eye and smiled. "No one's ever been able to make me change."

That mild little boast was just a joke on the surface. But the meaning under it ran deep, and a very old, very tired scar inside her finally began to ease. The imagined bitterness on her tongue finally faded, and all that was left behind was the sweetness. The air finally stopped tasting like grief, and finally started tasting like hope.

* * *

"Well that was underwhelming." Tosca noted dryly, flipping her hood up and stuffing the ends of her twin-tails beneath the collar of her jacket before stepping out into the rain. "I have to say, that was one of the most painfully boring mornings of my life."

Yuuto rolled his eyes before following her, keeping his hands shoved in the pockets of his dark green windbreaker. "And you wonder why nobody likes you. To think you were doing so well too."

"You know me. Always have to be a disappointment."

The laughter that bubbled up in the back of Yuuto's throat was swept away by the wind.

Truth be told Tosca wasn't exactly _wrong_. They'd been press-ganged into spending the entire morning lurking around a hole-in-the-wall bistro, waiting for the Himejima clan to do something worth fighting over. Instead everything had been mostly tame. The only thing that had been remotely exciting was how Suzaku showed up early on her own without any kind of backup.

Beyond that, Yuuto and Tosca had spent the last few hours sitting on a pair of wobbly too-tall chairs, drinking cheap coffee, and watching Akeno talk to her cousin. There'd been no drama and no tears, and once dinnertime rolled around the two young women had parted on good terms.

Happy endings all around was what Naruto would say.

Yuuto wasn't entirely sure how much faith he was going to put into that idea since he'd practically been able to see the gears turning behind Rias' eyes when she told him he could leave, but it was out of his hands. Either Suzaku really wanted to be allies or she was going to try to stab them all in the back. The only thing he could do was wait and see.

Which was probably for the best. Yuuto's last big personal decision had ended in blood and fire. He wasn't qualified to take the lead on anything.

"You're brooding again."

Hunching his shoulders together, Yuuto frowned mulishly at the slick pavement. "I'm not." His denial sounded weak to his own ears, but at least Tosca dropped it. He didn't have the patience to argue with her over Roland's death again. Maybe she was right that the priest had chosen to fight for something he believed in, but that didn't change the fact that he'd died because of Yuuto's recklessness.

The blond Knight kept his head down as he followed Tosca through the streets, trusting her to guide him back home without getting them lost.

It was only when they took a left down a side alley rather than turning right onto an open lane lit by street lamps that Yuuto shook himself back to full alertness. "Wrong turn." He reminded her, a touch of sharp edges in his tenor. Tosca didn't react, and Yuuto raised his voice while reaching for her shoulder. "Tosca!"

The second before his fingers reached her she spun around, her gaze hard and earnest. "Who's next?" she prodded, leering lightly at the way Yuuto reared back in surprise.

"Who's what now?" He sighed in exhausted exasperation, his breath a faint mist that floated up between their faces. Was it too much to – just once – accept that the daily drama ended neatly without throwing something else in Yuuto's lap?

Clicking her tongue at Yuuto, Tosca huffed. "Gremory. Phenex. Leviathan. Tepes. Kyou-youkai." Every name that fell from her lips hit him like drops of lethal venom. "Now Himejima. So, who is next?"

Blood and ashes. Yuuto had known she was curious about the secrets they'd been pretty obviously keeping from her, but he didn't know that she'd get so damn interested that she'd outright ask. "I don't know what you're talking about." He deflected uneasily.

_Wrong answer._

Tension hung silently between them, vibrating harshly as the glint in Tosca's eyes shifted from eager to vicious. "Fine." She snorted, shoving by Yuuto. "Keep your secrets. But remember, just because I like to play around in the basement with Gasper making batteries out of lemons doesn't mean that I'm blind. Galilei taught me more than just the quickest way to dissect a cat."

Yuuto stood in the rain alone for a long time after that, staring off after her and wondering when it had all gotten to be so complicated.

* * *

Slow curling warmth seeped into her skin, soothing away all the stresses of her day until she felt satisfied and boneless. It seemed like every single muscle fiber in her body had all let go at once, and even forcing her eyes open took herculean effort.

Ravel blinked lazily, idly studying the pale tendrils of her hair floating on top of the bathwater. "Today went better than you were expecting, hmm?"

The soft hum of consideration her fiancé replied with buzzed over her cheekbone, and Ravel turned slightly so her ear wasn't plastered right up against Naruto's wet chest.

She enjoyed the closeness of cuddling quietly in the bath with him, listening to the steady thump of his heartbeat for hours; but she drew the line at trying to carry on a conversation that way. It was too distracting.

"It went alright, I guess." Naruto eventually decided, letting his right arm slip off the porcelain rim of the tub so he could run his fingers through the loose bobbing strands of Ravel's mane. "Maybe I'm just getting paranoid in my old age."

She slapped his hand away with a snort of amusement, observing with a half-lidded gaze as Naruto drew idle circles beneath the surface with his free hand. It played at being a distraction, and she pretended not to notice when he shifted his other arm behind her back so he could settle a possessive grip along the curve of her hip.

"Let me guess. They don't make 'em like they used to, and us young whippersnappers don't know how bad things really are."

Laughing quietly at her mocking old man accent, Naruto brought one knee up to rest his empty hand on. The air seemed abnormally cool to his water-slick thigh, and they both watched the goose bumps surging over his tanned flesh. "You got it right on the nose." He murmured. "It wasn't like this the first time."

Ravel frowned, reaching over to take his hand between both of hers and hide them all beneath the last remnants of bubble bath foam.

She'd known for years that Naruto had lived twice, but he didn't talk about it all that often once things with Ophis had settled down. And the few times he did weren't usually in a tone of tired nostalgia.

It was hard to keep in mind that while he seemed like he had always belonged in her life with her, he hadn't. Once upon a time Naruto had belonged to somewhere else. Ravel would never send him back for anything, but she could spare him a little sympathy. "How was it?"

"Cleaner." Naruto sighed after a beat, tilting his head so he could rest his cheek along the crown of her golden head. "It was hard, don't get me wrong. Fuck, it was so _hard_. But I didn't have to second guess everything. I didn't have to wonder if people were lying so often, and I didn't have to do it all the time myself."

"Are you talking about Suzaku or Tosca?"

"Does it really matter? It fits both cases."

Ravel flared a wordless surge of low-key pyromancy from the soles of her submerged feet, heating the water back up to a proper steaming simmer. "I think it does. You won't be able to settle anything if you don't at least define what's really bothering you."

"Now." The blonde continued, pausing for a second to gather her thoughts. "The Suzaku issue is pretty simple to put away. You might be the heir to the clan, but most people wouldn't expect anything tangible to come from that for at least a couple hundred years. That goes for most of us. As a human Suzaku doesn't have a lot of time to work with. Is she really going to spend the rest of her life pretending to be friends for some undefined benefit? I don't think so. She's probably sincere."

"Or she might just want to pretend long enough to get our guards down and then kill us all." Naruto pointed out with a bite of black humor. "But I suppose I can give her the benefit of the doubt and not assume she's going for Danzo redux."

"Danzo redux?"

"You know, Danzo two-point-oh? Himemura Suzakanzo? Shijima Danzaku?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about right now, but it had better stop."

"I'll workshop it."

Naruto looked down at her with a smug leer that refused to be shaken when she glared back with a peeved expression.

Then she twisted his nipple.

"Alright, alright!" The redhead pouted, rubbing at his chest in an effort to chase the sting away. "No one but Sasuke appreciates the old Konoha jokes. Oh well. I suppose I can't win 'em all."

"That doesn't stop you from trying."

The sound of Naruto's laughter rang out again, bouncing off the tiled walls of the shower stall to echo hollowly across the rest of the opulent washroom.

It was good to see some of the weighty shadows slide off his face, Ravel reflected, but she'd known even before asking what the real problem hanging around his neck was.

Fixing her stare on the far side of the enormous bowl-shaped bathtub, Ravel decided she finish her job as her fiancé's self-appointed therapist and cut to the heart of the matter. "There's nothing we can do about Suzaku. Rationally we should give her some rope and leave it to her to decide if she wants to hang herself. Which is what I think you wanted to do in the first place. You don't have to try to be more ruthless than you actually are. That's what I'm here for."

Naruto's eyebrows rose at that. "I know. But just saying that doesn't mean I can just turn it off, you know? I believed in other people and I still want to, but it doesn't change the fact everything went shit-shaped when I did. So, then I try to avoid that pothole, and I end up feeling like an oh-so-edgy mega-jaded teenager."

"Moron." The blonde sighed fondly, primly shaking her finger at him. "It's not a one or the other proposition. It's okay to put some faith in new people. Just keep one hand on guard and it's fine to offer the other. Which incidentally is probably how you could solve your Tosca problem too."

The redhead sagged, and when he grimaced a little bead of glittering moisture clung to the corner of his perfectly carved jawline. "Do you want me to just spill my guts to her? How could I? Maybe If it was just me, I could take risks, but for some stupid reason you've all decided to make me the boss. All I have to do is fuck up once and it's all over for everybody, and everything would be my fault."

Very slowly, Ravel exhaled; expelling stress and trickles of dread until all that was left was her racing mind and the emptiness in her lungs.

Maybe she'd been too selfish or too ignorant, but Ravel couldn't deny anything right now. They'd shoved all their plans and nebulous hopes into Naruto's pockets and expected that he'd just smile and take everything without doing more than offering obligatory complaints.

They'd all forgotten that Naruto was just a living man, prone to a living man's doubts and a living man's frailties. He wasn't some steel vessel that they could pour their dreams into and expect that he'd never crack open.

Naruto was just a mortal being. Sometimes it was okay to be weak. But before she could tell him that, before she could cobble together some magical little speech that pacified his insecurities Naruto began speaking again.

"But I suppose you've got a point. I can keep bitching about my poor wittle feelings all I want but at some point, I'm going to have to actually do something. Suzaku's not my friend, but that doesn't mean she's my enemy. I'll make nice and not waste my time trying to spy on her over some plot I made up in my own head. Tosca _is_ my friend, but I suppose I've been a pretty shitty one what with the whole keeping obvious secrets thing. To get a little you gotta give a little I guess."

"Good." Ravel gave a relieved grin, pleased to see the magnetic energy that animated Naruto at the best of times finally flowing back into him. "You'll have to clear it with the others, but I don't think you'll have any problems. At least as long as you keep it to entry level information. It's not like we enjoyed keeping her totally in the dark."

Smirking at the blonde, Naruto kicked his heel along the bottom of the tub until he knocked out the plug. "I was getting tired of Yuuto moping around about her anyway. And who knows? Maybe once she settles down she'll stop cockblocking him."

* * *

The rubber bottoms of her slippers slid almost soundlessly over the polished floor. Only a few random squeaks here and there betrayed Valerie's presence. But it probably wouldn't have mattered even if she stomped and squealed around every corner.

Right now, with the thick blanket of midnight gloom wrapped around her, Valerie was just a forgotten ghost. The only thing in the universe that remembered her right now was the Grail, which never quite shut up.

That didn't quite bother her anymore. At least not in the same way as it once did. The low muttering in the back of her skull was almost comforting now.

Smiling secretively at the always-present song of death and stardust, Valerie stepped out onto the veranda. The ivory light of the moon greeted her, hanging in a pale slice that cut a gaping wound in the indigo belly of the evening sky.

The whispers hummed a little louder.

"Come on. It's not like it's going to hurt me, and I won't even tell anyone." Gasper begged, drawing the older blonde's attention when his voice cracked. The exaggerated grimace that crossed his coltish face made Valerie smother a laugh.

Leaning back against a cherry wood pillar, Sasuke scoffed around the faintly smoking cigarette perched between his lips. "Puberty strikes again, Valerie." He added a greeting, cocking an eyebrow in curiosity at the sight of her.

Fair enough. It wasn't often they had reason to breathe the same air, clouded with tobacco smoke or not.

"Sasuke. Gasper."

The younger dhampir gave an offhand wave before making one last effort to swipe Sasuke's cancer stick. "Come on, I'm not even human! I'm old enough to drive, I should be old enough to have a puff or two."

"First of all," Sasuke muttered as he tilted his head back to keep his mouth out of the range of the short boy's grasping hands. "You're _just barely_ old enough to drive in _this_ country, and you certainly don't look like it. Secondly, even if you could I don't want to put up with the complaints I'd hear about it." The Pawn laid a heavy palm on top of the Bishop's head and _forced_ him to settle down. "So, deal with it."

"Asshole."

The pouty little curse was the straw the broke the camel's back, and Valerie couldn't contain the storm of giggles riding up her throat. "Oh, they grow up so fast." She wiped an imaginary tear away. "Just yesterday he was biting my ankles and today I have to wash his mouth out with soap."

"Yeah sure, _mom_." Gasper rolled his eyes, running a hand through his shoulder length golden mane before flouncing across the deck. Once he had his back to the wall, Gasper plopped down cross-legged on the porch and peered up at her. "So besides torturing me, what brings you out here?"

Valerie shrugged loosely, the collar of her blouse crinkling around the white column of her neck with the motion. She didn't really have an answer for the young devil.

A year ago she would have blamed the restless buzz under her skin on knowing that Ravel was sharing a bed with Naruto, but she'd come to accept that he deserved to have what he wanted. Valerie knew she could do better than the roast chicken bitch, but the other woman didn't quite grate in the way she used to.

If Naruto wanted Ravel for her body or her low cunning or her money, then he should take her. That was just how it should be, and she wasn't bothered by it.

She wasn't.

Sometimes her blood just ran hot and hungry in her veins. It was probably a quirk of being a half-vampire. On some instinctive level she craved sex and violence.

But she wasn't going to bother Naruto when he hadn't called for her, and she wasn't going to kill anyone when she knew it would upset him. So for the moment there was nothing she could do but wait until the ache in her fangs settled back down.

The whispers hummed a little louder.

"Wandering." She finally offered vaguely, shifting her ruby stare from Gasper's amaranth gaze to the sinister crimson of Sasuke's slowly spinning Sharingan. It amused her in a morbid way to see how the proof of their inborn viciousness lived in their eyes.

It was almost deliriously poetic. Like reality itself bent to accommodate her and those like her, marking them out for Naruto to see.

Gasper was gentle now, and Valerie hadn't really had reason to yet, but sooner or later Naruto would need them to cross the line. As for Sasuke, well; he was already Naruto's pet monster. The most useful of them all if she was being honest.

For now.

Valerie fully intended on proving she could handle the power of the Grail. Once she did, there wasn't anything she wouldn't be able to do for Naruto.

The redness in Sasuke's eyes flickered, like he couldn't quite decide if he wanted to keep showing the two Bishops exactly what he was or if he wanted to hide the war-hungry beast. Eventually the Sharingan faded to black again, and the Uchiha burnt up the butt end of his cigarette with a relaxed burst of sorcery.

Valerie was kind of disappointed to see the venomous carmine shade go, but she supposed deception of that sort came effortlessly to him - just like it came easily to her and Gasper. They had the same nature; trickery and transformation.

The man would have been a good dhampir.

Perhaps she'd make him one once she better mastered her Sacred Gear.

Naruto only deserved the best after all, and the possibilities were endless once she fully understood the principles lying under life.

"I'm going to head in."

"Same. I have a few more rounds of DOTA waiting me."

She smiled cheerily at them. "Goodnight then. Sleep well."

The whispers hummed a little louder.


	21. Chapter 21

Scrabbling against the bark with her tabi-covered toes, Kunou kicked off the trunk and finally managed to make it up to her favorite branch without tearing her absurdly expensive haori.

"'Never broke a rule in her life'. Shows how much you know, moron." She muttered rebelliously, crawling in a little circle until she managed to get her back against the maple tree's trunk.

Satisfied that she'd proven the stupid redhead wrong, she looked out over the compound walls and pointedly didn't look anywhere near where Naruto was seated by the tiny garden pond.

Soon enough her mother would come back from her meeting and tell Kunou to stop acting like a little kid, but until then she was going to enjoy her win.

Even if she couldn't outright rub it in his face without coming across as just doing it because he told her to.

But that was fine, sometimes the silent victory was enough.

Well that, and the wordless gloating looks she could give him.

She knew she was right, and now he knew it too. Or maybe not considering he'd been talking to himself when he'd called her a prissy princess, and he did it three weeks ago at that. He probably didn't even remember saying it.

But that was still fine. It was the principle of the thing.

"Nice view up there?" The object of her disdain spoke up suddenly, having abandoned his meditation by the pond to come chat her up.

Could he be any more obvious? The first session her mother is to busy to supervise and Naruto immediately gets right up in her face. He must think she was too stupid to catch on.

"It's acceptable." Kunou shot back, her tone just shy of spiteful. Her golden gaze was cool as she looked down at where Naruto was lurking with his hands in his pockets by the trunk of her tree. "Did you have a question?"

In a fair world she'd have been able to ask that out of a sense of contempt, using it as a way to mock him because he was totally useless at senjutsu and had to come begging to her for answers. Kunou had even been looking forward to it when her mother told her they'd be having a dumb devil boy coming around for a few months to try to learn the sage arts.

But the world wasn't fair, because the dumb devil boy wasn't dumb enough.

He was annoyingly good at senjutsu in fact. He wasn't a master by any means, but he seemed to know what he was doing right from the start. And then something had clicked in his head a month ago and he started throwing qi around like a maniac.

The memory of that one weekend he spent doing nothing but showing off by making the flowers bloom and wither and bloom again over and over still made her mad.

What a bigheaded idiot. In her opinion that kind of person was the worst.

So Kunou would answer his questions as a fellow student, but she wasn't exactly eager to do it.

Naruto shrugged, squinting up at her with an odd expression on his face before peering out over the carefully tended grounds of her mother's estate. "Not really. Just kind of bored, you know? It was fun doing a bit of magic gardening, but I was really hoping to learn how to use Kasha, or at least Touki."

Snorting at how ill-informed the devil was, Kunou decided that if she was going to have to talk to him she'd rather do it with her feet on the ground. It was beneath her dignity to hide like a cat in a tree when he was obviously waiting for her to come down.

She wasn't afraid of him.

The blonde swung her legs out and dropped to the ground smoothly, landing lightly on the balls of her feet with vulpine grace. "You are not going to learn how to generate Kasha. I'm not going to learn how to generate Kasha. It's a nekomata-only bloodline ability, and they were wiped out a long time ago."

A sheepish smile curled at Naruto's lips, and he chuckled awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. "I did read about that, but I was kind of hoping it was just a rumor rather than a known fact, yeah? At least I know that I can still learn Touki. My cousin can do it and he wasn't formally trained in anything."

"Your cousin?" Kunou's eyebrows climbed upward in reluctant curiosity as she studied the Gremory heir with new eyes.

Truth be told, she didn't actually know all that much about Naruto beyond the fact that he had an irritating level of natural talent and that he was part of a ridiculously obvious plot to marry her inheritance.

It wasn't that she was being deliberately ignorant, but she had other priorities. The Gremory clan was a relatively small fish in the pond that was East Asia. There were five separate youkai courts in Japan alone, and Kunou needed to know everything about them.

Toss in the Church in Korea, the dozen youkai would-be-warlords in China, and the Khaos Brigade running around India and she just didn't have the time to waste her attention on some boy that wouldn't be politically relevant for the next eighty years.

Still, if his cousins were managing to bumble their way into senjutsu then maybe the clan was worth another look. There had to be some talent there if they managed that much.

"Yeah, Sairaorg. He's a pretty good guy all-around. For a while I did think of asking him to give me a hand with the senjutsu stuff, but I figured it made more sense to look for a specialist. It might take a little more time to learn that way, but at least they could teach me a few cool spells or whatever."

"Forget about learning _quickly_." Kunou snapped, frowning at Naruto with a mix of shock and horror. Did he have no sense of self-preservation at all? Even if he was half-a-prodigy senjutsu wasn't something to be approached so recklessly.

It was a wonder his head hadn't already exploded if he was just trying to do everything as quickly as possible. "Do it right or not at all. Senjutsu is dangerous."

Holding up his hands defensively, Naruto grinned at her. "I know, I know. That's why I'm here, aren't I? To learn how to do things the right way."

"And you had better make sure your cousin does the same before he accidentally contaminates himself with polluted qi and goes on a massacre."

"Sure thing. Do you have any quick pointers for him? He doesn't have a master or anything, so every little bit helps in my mind."

Exhaling slowly, Kunou folded her arms over her chest and glanced up at the sky in thought. What a hopeless man. But she supposed that she couldn't just leave him hanging in the wind if someone might actually die from it. "Well…"

* * *

The blood pounded between her temples, throbbing in time with the seething stress headache that was seeping into her brain. "This is certain?" she demanded quietly, her nine long golden tails slowly twisting through the air behind her like agitated cobras.

Kagerou's hands twisted, and he visibly fought the urge to reach out and try to sooth her. In the end he managed to restrain himself, lowering his jade-green stare to the floorboards. "It hasn't been publicly verified, but when have we ever been wrong?"

"Very rarely." Yasaka admitted with a sigh, turning her back on the shishi youkai to stare out the window. "But this is one of the few times I would hope a mistake has been made." Incompetence was generally worth punishment, but she'd take a bout of ineptitude over the news that the Sapporo Court was very close to accepting an alliance with Edo.

Nurarihyon must be laughing his liver spots off; the wrinkled old fart.

The floorboards creaked as her purple-haired retainer and occasional lover shifted anxiously in place, suffocating his desire to treat her like his woman as opposed to his austere leader. But she'd trained him well enough that Kagerou managed to wait quietly for the long minutes while she was lost in contemplation.

"Were they that offended by a few trade deals with foreigners?" The kitsune priestess mused, pressing the tip of her manicured thumbnail against her bottom lip. She'd signed a few business agreements with the Gremory clan, but nothing concrete beyond that. Mere hearsay shouldn't be enough for such a dramatic shift.

Historically none of the youkai courts were friends, but there were certain understandings that were upheld. Kyoto and Sapporo contained Edo between them, while Edo played nice with Hiroshima and Matsuyama to keep Kyoto from becoming more powerful.

Kagerou coughed into his fist, drawing his mistress' attention back. "If I may, I feel like it's not a question of culture or loyalty. The whole country knows you still have the favour of Inari, Yasaka-sama. No one would dare to call you a traitor."

Which was true, Yasaka decided after mulling over his words and deciding her servant-cum-bedmate wasn't just being deliberately sycophantic. Maybe she hadn't ruled as long as Nurarihyon, but she was the one that fought Dangun on the mountainside and saved their defeated armies from annihilation all those centuries ago. She'd made the people respect her, not only through words but through deeds.

Yasaka had real reasons to be proud.

So Sapporo wasn't motivated by something as simple as nationalism. Nurarihyon must have offered them quite a hefty bribe indeed. Whatever it was would have to make up for so blatantly going against their own conventional interests.

That, or there was another player entering the game besides the five courts and Gehenna that was willing to muddy the water.

"Very well then. If Edo wants a show, we'll give them a show." Yasaka's eyes burned with amber fire as she stepped closer to Kagerou. "I'd like you to find a handful of your most trusted and have them trickle in small cities and towns around Touhoku over the next few months. Have them pose as Edo youkai."

"Edo?"

The apple at the base of Kagerou's throat bobbed as he swallowed reflexively, and the sight made her lips curve up into a pleased little smile. "Yes, I think it's probably time for a few of Nurarihyon's staunchest supporters to congratulate him on successfully persuading Sapporo to accept the overlordship of Edo. Can you do this for me?"

Yasaka traced the pads of her fingertips over the sharp curve of the green-eyed man's jaw, feeling the faint stubble that just barely darkened the hollows of his cheeks. She'd told him just last week offhandedly that she liked a man with a little bit of ruggedness to him, and lo and behold here he was ready to please.

They always were.

"Of course. Anything you need."

* * *

"No." Rias huffed into the phone, spinning on her heel and stalking back across the kitchen with an agitated bounce to her step. "Mark up the bid as needed until you succeed. Money isn't a concern; I'll cover the cost. Just make sure you expedite the delivery. I want that bottle here before Thursday. Remember – Müller Riesling and nothing else. The 1990 year if you can get it, the 2003 if you can't."

Pursing her lips at the effusive affirmative that crackled through the speaker, Rias ended the call with a vague farewell, snapping her mobile shut and finally turning to Sasuke. "Don't you start again."

The Uchiha looked back at her with a bland expression on his face, and only the tiny sarcastic twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed him. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just thought maybe you wouldn't want to throw away twenty-five thousand Euros on someone you don't even like."

Rias rolled her eyes. "We both know that's just pocket change. And even if it wasn't I'm hardly going to send the Head of the Himejima clan a bottle of bootleg sake that you managed to pickpocket from some back-alley bum. I'm trying to reward her, not kill her."

"From the stories I've heard about that family, I'd say they're the same thing." Sasuke muttered, pushing off the wall and sauntering over. "But whatever. Are you done greasing palms? We're an hour behind."

Rias' eyes flickered briefly towards the absolutely garish cuckoo clock Naruto had insisted on hanging above the stove, and she fought back the instinct to frown when she realized her Pawn was right. That was just what she needed. It was bad enough that her father so kindly 'suggested' that she make a trip up to Kuoh a few times a month just to 'supervise' the lower ranking clan members that had settled there, now she'd have to put up with their constant begging to 'grace' them with her presence for a night.

Strangely, she found herself almost glad that she wasn't the clan heir anymore. Rias couldn't even begin to imagine how pathetically sycophantic they'd all be then. The only one that didn't fall all over himself trying to kiss up to her was Silas, since he actually had some talent and wasn't just looking to ride her coattails to success.

But Silas had the potential to be a whole different kind of problem.

Smiling just to nettle him and hopefully transfer some of her own sense of rising irritation, Rias made a big show of patting down her clothes. She slipped her cell phone into the front pocket of her blue jeans, rattled her keys around in her purse, and fiddled with the collar of her shirt until it hung loose off one shoulder.

Sasuke tilted his head at the over-the-top preening, waiting until her teal eyes shifted away before making his move. Sidling up behind the redhead until his crotch was pressed suggestively against the smooth curve of her rear, he lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered huskily. "Very haute couture."

For half a heartbeat Rias stood frozen, and then very deliberately reached behind her to trail her fingers over the stiffening bulge at the front of Sasuke's pants. "It's a very long drive to Kuoh from here, my friend." She paused, and then gave Sasuke a final pat before moving away. "I hope you don't find it too uncomfortable, riding in the back _all by yourself_."

Groaning at the catty retort, Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and willed his half-hard cock to soften. "I deserved that one." He admitted, following his mistress out the side door and across the lawn to where a sleek red convertible was purring and ready to go.

"You did." Rias hummed, gathering up her long red hair into a loose ponytail to keep it from being blown about in the wind. "Now shut up and get in." And with that the woman slid into the driver set and crammed a pair of dark sunglasses onto her face.

"Blood and ashes, you're in a mood." The Uchiha complained, crossing behind the Ferrari and sliding in beside her. He barely managed to click his seatbelt into place before Rias hammered the gas pedal and sent them screeching out of the driveway with the squeal of rubber on pavement.

Sasuke endured her reckless driving in silence until they escaped the city limits. Then without saying he set one hand on her shoulder and squeezed once. It was hardly a dramatic gesture, but for Rias it was enough and she sagged slightly with a ragged exhale.

To be honest, she knew she was being unreasonable. Sasuke hadn't said or done anything unusual and she'd still gone off on him without warning. Two months ago that kind of flirtation would have amused her, and perhaps even given her the wicked urge to see what it was like giving road head. But that had been two months ago, before Suzaku.

Now she was just too on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Rias was glad for Akeno, really, but it was hard to go from having her best friend by her side every day for almost twenty years to just seeing her in passing. Objectively mending fences with Suzaku was a good thing for Akeno, but it still cut that the other girl was so enamored that she didn't have any time for Rias any longer.

No, that was unfair. Between her absentee father, dead mother, psychopathic elder sister, and murderous great uncle Suzaku was the only member of that screwed up family Akeno had. It made perfect sense.

Apparently, Rias was just the kind of person that turned into a bitch whenever things didn't go her way. Maybe she should work on that. The first thing she could do would be to take up on Sasuke's offer from the kitchen. She could pull the car over and fuck him in the back seat. Then they could spend the night in jail for public indecency so she could have a few hours to re-evaluate her existence.

Marvelous.

"You're thinking too hard again."

Rias clenched her fingers around the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white from the angry pressure. She held on for a long minute, the seething self-loathing forming a rapidly tightening tangled knot in her chest; and then let it go with a steady sigh.

"Thanks, Doctor Snakes." she commented dryly, the tension seeping out of her shoulders.

Beneath the jibes she really was grateful, because once again Sasuke had reminded her to back out of her spiral of negative thoughts. Rias had a tendency to self-flagellate when her mood turned sour, and Sasuke had taken it upon himself years ago to provide the proverbial slap to the face when she needed it.

Just like now.

It was entirely understandable that she'd be a little crabby after her best friend essentially went AWOL. If Rias could give Akeno a pass for that, then she could give herself one too. They were both imperfect people, objectively speaking. A bit of moodiness was a natural response.

"If you're going to call me that, then I guess I'm now your therapist. I'll be a rich man."

"Oh, you watched that one too?"

"Gasper made me watch them all."

* * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Gasper asked skeptically, wringing his hands and glancing nervously towards the empty stairwell.

"Of course." Tosca replied cheerily, waving off the dhampir's concern with a lazy hand. "Now let's light it up. We should finish this before anyone else gets back and starts asking questions."

The blond boy spared a glare for the Knight and pointed out in a tone as dry as the Sahara "You know, usually if you have to hide something from other people that's a sign that you should consider maybe not doing that thing. Just a random thought that popped into my head."

"Yeah, but maybe you're not doing anything wrong, and you just keep things quiet because you know that certain people are totally irrational about the smallest things." Tosca shrugged, cocking a golden eyebrow at the shorter devil. "Now are we going to do this or are we just going to stand around looking like idiots until it drops dead of old age?"

"Like that would make a difference." Gasper muttered snidely, stepping up to the table with a groan when Tosca just gave him an exaggerated pout. "But sure. Whatever. One side of dead baby chicken coming right up."

"That's the spirit! I'll make a homicidal mad scientist out of you yet, young padawan."

"I don't think that's something I should aspire to."

"Of course it is, don't you want to join the cool kids' club?"

"Any club with you in it by definition can't be cool." Ever since Naruto decided let her know as much about their little conspiracy as Sona Sitri did, Tosca had really tried to take him under her wing. Gasper kind of enjoyed being roped into her shenanigans if he was being completely honest, but that didn't mean he wouldn't give as good as he got.

"Brat, just shut up and get it moving along."

Drawing the power of his Sacred Gear close to him, Gasper reached out and opened the pockmarked shoebox that Tosca had dropped in his lap two hours ago. A fluffy yellow chicken chirped back at him, blinking its beady black eyes innocently up at the Bishop that loomed over it.

"Starting now." He told his self-appointed scientific mentor, and then let Forbidden Balor View fall over his line of sight.

Most of the color bled out of the world, and the shadows seemed to be heavier and seething when Gasper peered through the eyes plucked from a dead god. The only thing that seemed to be exist properly was the chick he set his gaze on, with every detail of the little bird flush with pigment and hyperreal to him.

Which was a bit of a paradox, since it was suspended in time while the rest of the world still moved and lived despite the filter of corpse color that shaded everything else.

A faint ache bloomed in the back of his skull, barely present but throbbing in time with the slow beat of his pulse. "It's done." He told her, keeping his flaming pupils fixed on the frozen chick.

Tosca gave a grunt of acknowledgement, stepping around Gasper so she stood directly across the table from him.

"I'll go slow and steady." She warned him, placing her hands a good foot to either side of their suspended subject. Blue light sparked between her fingertips, and a transparent azure dome hummed into existence around the chick.

Gasper felt it when her Sacred Gear lined up in the same area of effect as his. It was like an off-key whistle blowing just out of the range of conscious hearing. He didn't experience the sound directly, but it set his subconscious mind on edge and the dhampir had to stop himself from grinding his teeth. If they could figure this out it would be worth the discomfort.

Two fields of suspended animation centered around the same subject was just redundant. But Tosca could find a way to tweak her Sacred Gear, to find a way to make it feed of the power of his and use that to direct the effects, they might be able to do more than just freeze time.

It wouldn't matter that he was a squishy wizard type if he could just age all his opponents into the grave as soon as he looked at them.

"Steady." Tosca breathed, the barrier beneath her hands flexing slightly and she forced her will on it and made it buzz on a different plane. It made the urge to clench his jaw stronger, but Gasper pushed that aside. They were playing with a Sacred Gear they barely understood and didn't even have a name for. A few growing pains were part of the package.

" _Steady_."

The burning blue shifted as red streaks seemed to just drift over the curved crystal, mixing as it passed until Tosca's barrier looked like half of some ridiculous Easter egg. Gasper almost laughed when a particularly runny splotch seemed to form what looked like a crooked frowny face. "Nice."

Then the chick exploded, tiny chunks of pink and grey intestines splattering in all directions. The only thing that saved Tosca from a face full of chicken liver and feces was that this time she'd been expecting it. She'd managed to keep her Sacred Gear engaged despite the sudden detonation.

"Two for science, and one for you." Gasper stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry, letting Forbidden Balor View fade away with a blink. "Do you think we can publish this in Xenobiotica?"

"You've been spending too much time with Sasuke." Tosca groused with a sour expression on her face. The white-haired young woman let her barrier drop with a growl, glaring at the bloody bits that hit the tabletop with a wet little slap. She was getting tired of failures. "You're an intolerable little prick lately, and you're not easy enough on the eyes to get away with it."

Rearing back with a gasp of false horror, Gasper placed his hand over his heart and blinked wetly at her. "Are you calling me ugly? But Ravel said I was a pretty princess! I even put on my brand-new striped stockings this morning." Then he cocked a hip, letting his skirt flutter freely at the motion.

Tosca was quiet for a long moment, staring unblinkingly at the cross-dressing dhampir with dull eyes. "Never. Do That. Again." She gave a full body shudder, holding her hands up in a futile attempt to ward off what she had more than once called pure androgynous evil.

Which was totally unfair as far as Gasper was concerned. He was one hundred percent pure androgynous fabulousness, if he was going to put a label on it. "No wonder Naruto tells you everything now. You'd bust his little balls if he put a toe outta line."

"Damn right." Tosca shot back, banishing the cooling bird guts away with a flash of smokeless sorcerous fire. "Speaking of which, I need to go make sure that Sitri is feeling all warm and welcomed by her graduating class. She got here twenty minutes ago but Naruto won't be back for another three hours, and Rias probably won't be back until tomorrow."

"Wait, you left Sona Sitri waiting up by herself in our house with all our _private things_ for half an hour?"

Shrugging disdainfully, the Knight turned away,;waving one hand over her shoulder in farewell. "See you later, young grasshopper. Some of us actually have work to do around here. Have fun posting underage nude pictures on Tumblr or something."

"What did you even come down here for!" Gasper shouted after her. "And I don't do that ever, so stop bringing it up!"

* * *

Akeno hummed a tune she half-remembered overhearing on the radio earlier that day, practically skipped up the stone walkway to the front door. One of the guards hired by Grayfia when they'd moved in did a double tag as Akeno bounced by, but she didn't let that deter her.

The clock buzzed as she slid into the kitchen, and the sound was so strange it made her do a double take. "Huh." The Queen blinked, tilting her head slightly as she studied the absolutely gutted cuckoo bird figurine that should have been screeching to welcome eight o'clock. "Now which one did that?"

Rias was an immediate suspect, since her redhaired mistress was probably seething with anger at having to do all of the administration work of the clan heir with none of the respect. Sasuke was another possibility, since he'd probably do something like bust Naruto's pet clock just for the sadistic amusement of seeing the man's frustration.

Of course, maybe Valerie was sleeping with Naruto tonight. That might be enough to make Ravel finally snap and do fatal injury to the most grievous interior design monstrosity they'd seen since Marquis' Phenex's gold-plated 'ballroom' all those years ago.

Akeno didn't know, because no one bothered to tell her.

Frowning at the thought, she pulled her phone from her pocket and swiped away her lock screen with a newly-manicured finger. "Just one from Suzaku?" she muttered, opening her inbox and firing off a quick mishmash of happy face emojis at the invitation to go back out for lunch tomorrow.

Akeno switched over to the last message she'd gotten from Rias and found herself blinking down at a grocery list dated from a week and a half week ago. Chewing her lip against the faint tightness in her chest, she settled on sending Rias a single short line of text.

" _8===D + (V)"_

Smirking slightly, she didn't wait for a reply before pulling up Koneko on her contacts list and firing of a short message asking what happened to the clock. If she was out of the loop she'd just have to try to get back in it.

She didn't even manage to slide her phone back into her jeans before it started buzzing relentlessly, vibrating against her fingertips like a broken vibrator. Koneko, Yuuto, and even Naruto himself all showed up on her notifications.

Naruto only sent her a string of gibberish, with the odd word standing out here and there, like 'puddle' and 'hatesweetsugar'. Yuuto was only slightly more coherent, though ten messages in a row all saying 'HELP' didn't tell her much.

Koneko didn't even bother with words. The nekomata only sent a single blurred picture of Sona Sitri facedown on the library floor surrounded by cans of Pepsi and vodka mix.

A snort escaped her when suddenly a message from Sasuke showed up, and Akeno realized that Naruto had decided in his infinite wisdom to invite them all to a groupchat. The Uchiha sent another ':eyes:' emoji, and then Rias finally responded.

' _I will kill you all.'_

' _u will have to CTHULU me FIRST'_ Naruto buzzed back ineptly, following up his botched autocorrect with 'cast', 'cats', and 'cock' before giving up and just spamming 'lol'.

When Gasper's annoyed swearing began to fill the lines between Naruto's intoxicated texts Akeno decided she should probably do something.

It wasn't exactly politically kosher to have a fellow clan heiress blackout drunk on their floor with what looked like a pair of Koneko's dirty socks on her head. So it was probably for the best to get them halfway decent before anyone important showed up.

"But first." She grinned, crossing the kitchen to root around in the drawers until she found what she was looking for with a diabolical gleam in her eyes. "I have to stick to tradition." Then armed with a red sharpie she stepped out into the hallway, whistling cheerily and twirling her marker between her fingers.

"Oh, I'm just a girl…"


End file.
